November 3rd 7th: Coffee market performance

DRWakefield's traders have been keeping their usual close eye on the developments of the global coffee market, with their latest report covering the week from Monday November 3rd to Friday November 7th. Here, we're going to break this down slightly, looking at the value of various currencies throughout the five-day trading period, as well as at how the Arabica and Robusta coffee bean varieties fared. Currency A 26-month low was seen with regard to the euro and US dollar conversion rate during the week, as it slipped to $1.2363, indicating a significant decrease of more than 1.5 cents. In relation to its value against the pound sterling, the US dollar saw several fluctuations between the 3rd and the 7th, going from a high of $1.6001 to a low of $1.5822. Arabica Looking at the performance of Arabica beans, the value of this coffee variety reached a high on Tuesday, but failed to recreate this throughout the rest of the week. One potential reason for this could be reports of over-irrigation in Brazil to combat the country's weather issues, but whether or not this is the case, only the remainder of the season will tell. Brazil's Arabica exports reached 2.76 million bags during October, reports released during the week show, but this indicates a slight decrease from last year's 2.80 million. However, given the nation's severe drought, this is arguably not very surprising. In Kenya, the country's highly-coveted AA grade Arabica coffee had risen in value by five per cent for each 50 kg bag sold by Wednesday 5th, according to information from the Nairobi Coffee Exchange. Robusta Market performance for Robusta beans was largely similar to Arabica during the week, but with the overall trend pointing downwards. Interestingly, despite its weather issues, Brazil reported a year-on-year increase for Robusta shipments in October, exporting 275,893 60 kg bags overseas to traders like ourselves at DRWakefield in comparison to the 99,005 it sent abroad in 2013.