Brazil’s Coffee Growers May Boost Sales If ‘Big Movement’ on ICE

14/01/2013 
 

BLOOMBERG (USA)
 
Coffee growers in Brazil, the world’s largest producer, may increase sales if there’s a “big movement” in prices up or down on ICE Futures U.S. in New York, Cazarini Trading Co., a broker in Varginha, Brazil, said.

Growers will probably sell if prices are up at $1.55 to $1.60 a pound or down at $1.35 to $1.40 a pound, Thiago Cazarini, a broker at the company, said in a report e-mailed yesterday. Arabica coffee futures traded on ICE are today at $1.497 a pound after falling 37 percent last year.

“The market should flow if a big movement up or down happens,” he said.

Lower prices prompted Brazil’s growers to hold back beans. The nation’s coffee exports fell 16 percent last year, Brazil’s coffee exporters’ council, known as Cecafe, said in a report e- mailed yesterday.

Demand for exports is “starting to pick-up,” Cazarini said in the report. Shipments from Brazil are set to rebound this year by as much as 9.5 percent, according to Cecafe.

Exports will rise to as much as 31 million bags from 28.3 million bags a year earlier, the industry group estimated.

Buyers of coffee from Brazil are getting a discount of 18 cents to 19 cents a pound below the exchange price for beans of good-cup quality and a discount of 10 cents a pound for beans of fine-cup quality, data from Rio de Janeiro-based broker Flavour Coffee e-mailed yesterday showed. Fine-cup coffee beans are usually more expensive because of their taste profile.

A bag of coffee weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).