Robusta coffee rose to the highest price in two weeks in London after a report showed traders continued to tap stockpiles in Europe. Cocoa fell.
Bean stockpiles in warehouses monitored by the NYSE Liffe exchange fell 15 percent to 83,770 metric tons in the two weeks to Aug. 5, data on the exchange website yesterday showed.
Robusta coffee was little changed this year while arabica futures slumped 15 percent as global supplies outpaced demand. Brazil, the world’s biggest coffee grower, will harvest 48.6 million bags of coffee, a record for a year in which trees enter the lower-yielding half of a two-year cycle, the government estimates. Coffee production in Colombia, the world’s second-biggest producer of arabica beans, rose 38 percent in the January-July period to 5.97 million bags.
“Robusta is outperforming the arabica variety because supply in arabica is greatly improved with Brazil harvesting its biggest ever off-year crop and Colombia obviously seen headed to a very large recovery,” Stefan Uhlenbrock, an analyst at F.O. Licht GmbH, said today by phone.
Robusta coffee for delivery in November was 0.7 percent higher at $1,922 a ton by 12:03 p.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. It reached $1,929 earlier today, the highest for the contract since July 26. Arabica coffee for September delivery gained 0.4 percent to $1.225 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York.
Robusta futures for September delivery were $18 a ton more expensive than the November contract. That market structure, in which earlier-dated contracts are more expensive than later ones, is known as backwardation and may signal limited supplies.
Source: businessweek.com/news/2013-08-09/robusta-coffee-rises-to-2-week-high-on-stockpiles-cocoa-falls
Robusta Coffee Rises to 2-Week High on Stockpiles
