Robusta coffee reached a seven-week high in London as sliding exports from leading grower Vietnam compounded rising local prices and low stockpiles in Europe. Cocoa advanced on speculation about crop delays.
Vietnam’s coffee shipments fell 37 percent on the year to 88,387 metric tons in June, according to customs data. Local bean prices were the highest since May 28 yesterday, data from the Daklak Trade & Tourism Center on Bloomberg showed. Robusta coffee stockpiles in depots monitored by NYSE Liffe slid 3.2 percent in the two weeks to July 8, according to exchange figures.
Robusta gained “as the market attempts to play catch-up with strong Vietnamese values,” Sterling Smith, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, said in a report e-mailed yesterday. “The September contract scored a strong outside day with a positive close above recent resistance seen at the $1,900-a-ton level,” he said, adding that futures buying today was “key to maintaining the rally.”
Robusta coffee for delivery in September gained 1.2 percent to $1,927 a ton by 10:32 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. Prices touched $1,928, the highest since May 28. Arabica coffee for the same delivery month rose 1.1 percent to $1.2455 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York after adding 3.2 percent yesterday.
Minas Gerais
Growing areas in Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer overall, will get rainfall from Parana state to southern Minas Gerais from July 20 to July 24, potentially disrupting harvesting, Sao Paulo-based weather forecaster Somar Meteorologia said in a report e-mailed yesterday. A cold front will bring showers to Sao Paulo and Parana starting July 18.
Source: businessweek.com/news/2013-07-16/coffee-reaches-seven-week-high-on-vietnam-exports-cocoa-gains
