F.O. Lichts Coffee Daily – LATEST WORLD COFFEE MARKET REPORT

07/04/10

Arabica futures in New York fell as a strong US dollar and generally weak commodity markets prompted profit-taking and liquidation. The speculative fund buying that had supported the market for the last two weeks faltered and momentum shifted. No new fundamental information was impacting the market and movements lately have been a result of outside markets and fund activity. The most-active May contract lost 1.65 cents to end at 137.55 cents/lb and traded between 136.50 and 139.20 cents. The rest of the board was down 1.45 to 1.60 cents in total trade estimated at 24,464 lots. The May contract is currently stuck in a $1.37 to $1.40 range.

Robusta futures in London also fell as the market came under pressure from the firm US dollar. The most-active May contract fell $18 to settle at $1,345 a tonne and traded between $1,361 and $1,334. The rest of the board lost $18-$17 in total trade of 11,115 lots, up from the previous sessions 6,288.

Coffee prices in Kenya at the Nairobi Coffee Exchange auction rose as supply thins from the main crop. The average price for all coffee sold was $245.26 per 50-kg bag, up from $221.33 at the previous auction. A total of 16,143 bags were offered and 8,909 bags sold with a value of $2.7 mln compared with 17,499 bags offered, and 10,937 sold worth $2.95 mln at the last auction.

FUNDAMENTALS

UNITED STATES – ICE certified arabica stocks fell by 59,515 60-kg bags to 2,533,446 bags as of April 7. There were 59,583 bags pending grading while 13,718 bags had been graded and 12,438 past exchange approval.

BRAZIL – Green coffee exports reached 2.356 mln 60-kg bags in March 2010, up slightly from 2.351 mln shipped in the same month a year ago, the Council of Green Coffee Exporters (Cecafe) said. Arabica beans accounted for 2.320 mln bags of the total, up from 2.317 mln bags the same month last year. Robusta shipments rose 7% to 36,699 bags from 34,338 bags a year ago. Soluble coffee exports rose modestly to 249,689 bags from 249,159 the same month last year bringing total exports for the month to 2.606 mln bags, up from 2.600 mln shipped in March 2009. Revenue from coffee exports rose 16% to $413 mln from $348 mln in the same month last year.

BRAZIL – The soon to be harvested 2010/11 crop will be 44.2 mln 60-kg bags, said the national Census Bureau (IBGE). The new esti-mate is down 4.7% from last months forecast of 46.4 mln bags due to dry weather in the state of Espirito Santo.