Coffee Market Report 3rd to 7th March 2014

COFFEE MARKET NEWS 3^rd March – 7^th March 2014

Coffee Prices, Futures and Currency close levels:

Futures Markets:

Arabica: Over the last two weeks since the initial boom into coffee, volumes have started to dwindle for a number of different reasons. The dry weather has finally subsided but the rain that has found its way to the coffee belt still doesn’t appear to be enough to really fix the problem but at the same time has kept dry weather off the headlines. The next potential catalysts seem to be either new revisions of the crop estimates or a return to dry weather reports

Robusta: London was maintaining its gains as the week concluded but a slightly tighter session than Thursday still made for an inside day.

Currency: On the FX markets, EUR/USD rose to $1.3871, the highest level since December 2013 after the ECB signalled they saw no need for additional stimulus. Meanwhile, GBP/EUR softened to a low of €1.2062.

Physical Markets:

Brazil: Dry weather has slashed forecasts for leading global producer Brazil's coffee crop in 2014/15 by more than 10 percent, with a median result of 48.9 million (60-kg) bags, a snap Reuters poll of 20 analysts, traders and producers showed on Friday.

Colombia: Some of Colombia's coffee traders have ripped up contracts to supply exporters, setting off a price war for high-quality beans in the first sign a 75 percent surge in prices so far this year is starting to disrupt the market, exporters say. The defaults in the world's No. 1 washed arabica producer will add to unease in the coffee market amid arabica's biggest rally in decades and could mark the start of problems the physical market has been bracing for as a prolonged drought and devastating fungus damage crops in Central and South America.

Honduras: exports from Honduras, Central America's top producer, fell 1.2 percent in February compared to the same month last year, the national coffee institute IHCAFE said on Monday. IHCAFE said coffee shipments in February totalled 574,438 60-kg bags. Honduras expects to export 4.52 million 60-kg bags during the current season.

Guatemala: exports from Guatemala fell 5.1 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the national coffee organization said on Tuesday. Guatemala exported 326,704 60-kg bags last month, down from 344,281 bags in February 2013. The Central American nation famed for its Arabica bean exported 843,536 bags through the first five months of the 2013/14 harvest season, down 17.34 percent from the same period of the 2012/13 coffee cycle.

Kenya:  The top price of Kenya's benchmark coffee grade fell to 30% per 50 kg bag at this week's auction from last week, the Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) said on Wednesday. Kenya's speciality coffee beans are known for their high quality and are sought after by roasters for blending with coffee of lesser quality.

India: prices in India rose at a weekly auction, tailing leads from overseas markets and on export demand. The Arabica Coffee price in New York for March 2014 was higher 12% per pound. Robusta coffee price in London for March2014 was higher 5% per tonne in the week to March 6.

Indonesia: Robusta coffee bean exports from Indonesia's main growing area in Sumatra fell 68 percent to 7,559 tonnes in February from a year earlier, government trade data showed on Monday. Indonesia shipped 23,912.15 tonnes of robusta in the same month a year earlier and 8,299.19 tonnes in January. The Southeast Asian nation exported a total of 355,771.23 tonnes in 2013, up more than 80 percent from the 197,421.89 tonnes exported in 2012.