Cooxupe’s 2017 Coffee Sales Stagnate Following Drop in Prices

2017-04-17

(Bloomberg) — The nation’s largest coffee-grower cooperative and exporter has sold 19.8% of the expected 2017 harvest as of April 11, Lucio Dias, its commercial superintendent, says by phone.

* That compares with the 18.5% sold as of Nov. 8
* Advance coffee sales were 18.4% a year earlier, 32.4% in 2015
* “Farmers are selling a few beans so far, waiting for higher prices”
* “Starting the new season ’well sold’ is much better to support prices throu gh the season. Unfortunately, it is not happening this year as we haven’t had good prices since the end of last year”
* Avg prices in 2017 may be lower than in 2016
* NOTE: Cooxupe sees its members’ output reaching 4m bags in 2017 compared with 4.6m bags in 2016