Robusta at 5-Month Low on Vietnam Prices; Sugar Advances

31 de maio de 2013 | Sem comentários English Geral

BLOOMBERG (USA)

Robusta coffee extended losses to a five-month low in London as prices in Vietnam, the world’s leading producer of the variety used in instant drinks and espresso, continue to slide. Sugar advanced.

Coffee prices in Vietnam fell 5.2 percent in the past two weeks to 40,500 dong ($1.93) a kilogram (2.2 pounds), data from the Daklak Trade & Tourism Center on Bloomberg showed. Dak Lak is the nation’s main growing region. Production there this season will be 25.5 million bags and crop development suggests a 2013-14 harvest of similar size, according to Andrea Thompson, the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based head of research and analysis at INTL FCStone Inc.’s CoffeeNetwork unit. A bag usually weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).

“Robusta prices continue to collapse, trading toward last December’s low,” Arthur Liming, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, said in a report e-mailed yesterday. “Cash coffee prices in Vietnam continue to fall.”

Robusta coffee for delivery in July slid 1 percent to $1,871 a metric ton by 11:04 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London, and dropped as low as $1,869, the lowest price since Dec. 19. Arabica coffee for the same delivery month was little changed at $1.275 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. The price difference between the two varieties was 42.6 cents a pound.

Global robusta coffee production will rise 2.9 percent to 70 million bags in the 2013-14 season after gaining almost 9 percent in the current period, ED&F Man Holdings Ltd.’s Volcafe unit estimates. The flow of beans from Vietnam this season has been “strong,” CoffeeNetwork’s Thompson said yesterday.

White, or refined, sugar for delivery in August added 0.6 percent to $478.30 a ton on NYSE Liffe. Raw sugar for delivery in July was up 0.3 percent to 16.72 cents a pound on ICE.

Cocoa for delivery in July was up 0.3 percent at 1,508 pounds ($2,287) a ton in London. Cocoa for the same delivery month rose 0.6 percent to $2,224 a ton in New York. ICE futures trading volumes were 40 percent below the average for the past 100 days for this time of day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.