MILAN – Robusta coffee futures rose to new highs on Tuesday gaining support from supply tightness in Vietnam. The benchmark contract for May delivery posted a $184 gain to close to a new all-time high for the contract of $3,663 a ton.
The contract for July delivery also raised by $184 to a new peak of $3,590 a ton. In New York, the main contract for May delivery was up by 595 points to a 3-week high of 197.75 cents.
Vietnam shipped nearly 799,000 tons of coffee, worth US$1.9 billion in January-March period, with average price of US$3,500-US$4,000 per ton, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
However, exports are doomed to slow down this year due to an estimated 20% decrease in production for the current 2023/24 CY.
The Vietnam Coffee Association said that Vietnam’s 2023/24 coffee exports could drop by 20% to 1.336 million tons.
In other news, the European Coffee Federation (ECF) released last week new data on green coffee stocks in the major coffee ports of Europe, updated to February 29th.
The data are supplied by warehousing and port organisations in Europe covering the ports of Antwerp, Hamburg, Le Havre, Barcelona, Trieste, Genoa, Napoli, Tallin, London, Felixstowe, and Bremen (partly).
The stocks have been broken down in three categories: Robusta, Natural Arabica (includes Brazil Semi-Washed) and Washed Arabica.
According to the ECF, stocks recorded a 41% decrease on year to 401,787 tons, or 6,696,450 60-kg bags.
Natural Arabica inventories were 45.2% down to 126,150 tons, or 2,102,500 bags.
Washed Arabica stocks fell to 161,520 tons, or 2,692,000 bags, a 20% decrease on year.
Robusta stocks saw the biggest decline to 114,117 tons, or 1,901,950 bags, a 54.2% over last year.
