MILAN – Arabica coffee prices rose sharply on Monday on negative weather news from Brazil. There are fears that an excessive dryness could reduce coffee yields. Climatempo on Monday forecasted no rain for Brazil’s coffee-growing regions through the rest of this month.
The main contract for December delivery closed up by 785 points at a one-week high of 221.20 cents per lb. The market resumed its upward trend, with funds continuing to build a net long position.
ICE Arabica certified stocks rose further to 627,750 bags, a fifth successive daily increase after setting a 23-year low of 571,580 bags on Aug. 15.
November Robusta coffee in London rose $17 to $2,239 a tonne, recovering from last Friday’s setback.
According to Safras & Mercado, harvesting operations have slowed down in this final stretch. The conillon harvest is practically finished. It is not finished yet due to the initial delay caused by late maturation and lack of manpower.
In the case of Arabica, the rain last week slowed down the work pace. In the rear of the cold front comes a mass of polar air, which must bring temperatures down in Brazilian coffee regions, but without bringing great risks.
The monitoring of Safras indicates that, until August 16, Brazil reaped 92% of the 22/23 coffee crop, which corresponds to an advance of only 3% compared to last week.
With that, nearly 55.93 million bags have already been reaped from the production preliminarily estimated at 61.10 million bags.
Work is in line with the same time last year, but below the 5-year average for the period, which is at around 94% of production.
The Arabica harvest is 88% complete, in line with the 88% reaped in the same period last year, but below the 91% 5-year average. The conillon harvest is 99% complete and very close to the end.
