Home »Agriculture and Allied » World » Arabica coffee price sinks to lowest in over 13 years
Arabica coffee futures on ICE fell on Monday to a December 2005 low as the harvest in top grower Brazil loomed over an already oversupplied market, while New York cocoa rose to a more than two-month high.

May arabica coffee settled down 2.4 cents, or 2.5 percent, at 92.10 cents per lb.

Prices traded as low as 91.65, the lowest since Dec. 14 2005.

Coffee prices have collapsed on surplus supplies, especially from Brazil.

The proximity of the Brazilian harvest was now adding more pressure to the market, said Rodrigo Costa, director of trading at Comexim USA.

Brazil's arabica harvest starts next month, while the harvest of conilon, the variety of robusta grown there, starts this month.

May robusta coffee settled down $38, or 2.6 percent, at $1,418 per tonne, after touching a 3-year low of $1,414.

The robusta market has held up better than arabica over the past few months but its decline in recent days was now weighing on arabica, said Costa.

May New York cocoa settled up $47, or 2.1 percent, at $2,327 per tonne, after peaking at $2,353, the highest since Jan. 18.

London May cocoa settled up 21 pounds, or 1.2 percent, at 1,749 pounds per tonne.

Prices are supported by signals of strong demand, dealers said, as well as concerns that the mid-crop in top grower Ivory Coast could be smaller than had previously been anticipated.

A dry spell in some of the country's cocoa regions could affect the size and quality of the mid-crop, farmers said.

Still, Ivorian output so far this year has been strong. Port arrivals in the country reached 1.697 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and March 31, exporters estimated, up about 13 percent year on year.

May raw sugar settled up 0.14 cent, or 1.1 percent, at 12.67 cents per lb.

May white sugar settled up $5.30, or 1.6 percent, at $330.10 per tonne, after falling to a six-month low of $320.70. Dealers closely watched the premium of May white sugar over raws, which was as small as $48.06 on Monday after dipping to as $47.49 on Friday.

Copyright Reuters, 2019


the author

Top
Close
Close