MILAN – Figures contained in the ICO monthly report helped drive down coffee futures in the last session of the week. On Friday, 6 September, the London-based organisation’s monthly reported a double-digit increase in world coffee exports during the first 10 months of the coffee year (October-July).
The circumstance contributed, to a large extent, to the sharp decline suffered by both markets, with New York and London closing down by 3.4% and 2.9% respectively to 236 cents (December) and $4770.
Preliminary data on Brazilian exports also contributed to the downward trend of the stock markets.
According to figures released by the government, Brazil’s green coffee exports totalled 3,451,183 bags in August, an increase of 4.86% over the same month last year. Cecafé will release its monthly report with full export figures later this week.
The latest Commitment of Traders report from the New York Arabica market has seen the Non-Commercial Speculative sector decrease their net long position by 9.48% over the week of trade leading to Tuesday 3rd. September 2024 to register a new long position of 39,101 lots.
In London, the Speculative Managed Money Sector increased their net long position by 4.76% over the same week to register a new net long position of 35,033 lots.
Meanwhile, a new report from Reuters shows a strong ongoing expansion of Robusta growing in Brazil, accelerated by the recent upsurge in prices. In London, Robusta coffee futures reached unprecedented levels in recent months, setting new highs for the contract.
In Brazil, the CEPEA/ESALQ index for Robusta coffee surpassed its counterpart for Arabica coffee for the second time in the historic series (the first time was between late 2026 and early 2017).
“People were already planting more Robusta, but with the recent spike in prices it got crazy,” said Enrique Alves, a coffee researcher at Brazil’s agricultural research company Embrapa in the northern state of Rondonia, quoted by Reuters.
“Robusta seedling producers told me they are at the limit of their production capacity and are not taking new orders,” he added.
In some cases, this is even leading producers in the top robusta state of EspÃrito Santo, in some places, to replace Arabica trees with Robusta ones, which require less care and are more resilient and easier to grow.
“Conilons are climbing the mountains,” Fabiano Tristao, a coffee researcher at Incaper institute, said, referring to a similar type of Robusta cultivated in the region, which is being planted in higher altitude areas traditionally used to grow arabica.
