Colombia Cash Coffee: Differentials Stay Firm In Higher Mkt

Colombia Cash Coffee: Differentials Stay Firm In Higher Mkt
Saturday, October 10, 2009
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Physical trading remained slow this week in Colombia’s cash arabica coffee market, as fresh supply from the new 2009-10 harvest hasn’t yet started reaching the market, traders and exporters said Friday.

Premiums paid for Colombian beans against the New York arabica market also stayed firm, even as international prices rose to two-month highs, but despite a steady flow of offers from exporters in origin, little new business was reported.

“There is trade, but we are not seeing any major volumes, just small lots and in most cases, we are talking just a few bags left over from the mitaca crop,” said an exporter in Bogota.

Another trader in Bogota said: “The market is still quiet, there’s little coffee available and what is sold in the market is from the mitaca harvest. The new crop still hasn’t started to flow yet.”

Arabica prices at the ICE Futures U.S. exchange in New York closed lower Friday, with the active December ‘C’ contract settling down 2.25 cents at $1.3565/lb, but up 5.95 cents on the week.

Cash differentials for “usual good quality” Colombian beans for delivery between October and November were quoted at premiums between 26 cents per pound and 31 c/lb, compared with premiums quoted last week between 28 c/lb and 30 c/lb.

Traders said Colombian exporters are being more cautious than usual as uncertainty remains over both when fresh coffee will be available and how much coffee will be available in the 2009-10 harvest following bad weather.

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of mild washed arabica coffee, with annual output of between 11.5 million and 12.5 million 60-kilogram bags in recent years. It’s the third-largest coffee producer overall after Brazil and Vietnam.

-By Maja Wallengren, Dow Jones Newswires; mwallengren@hotmail.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-09-09 1923ET
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