It topped $3.25 a pound on Friday, hitting a new 47-year high. In addition, the price of cheaper Robusta coffee also reached its highest level in the same number of years on Fridaywhich reached almost 5700 USD per ton. TASR informs about it based on a Reuters report.
The price of Arabica coffee reached $3.2530 (3.09 euros) per pound (453.6 grams) on Friday afternoon. This is the highest price of coffee since 1977. The reason is the long-lasting drought in Brazil, which is the largest producer of coffee in the world. Traders thus expect a further drop in commodity supplies to world markets, where supply already lags behind demand.
In addition, according to traders, some Brazilian farmers are delaying deliveries of this year’s harvest to the markets in the hope that they will be able to negotiate even higher prices later. This will mean a further restriction of supply and high financial losses for traders who counted on the delivery of coffee. Traders reported that farmers did not deliver the promised 900,000 60-kilogram bags of coffee.
The price of Arabica coffee has already increased by 75% this year, which makes it, along with cocoa, one of the fastest growing commodities. Cocoa prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year.
“The price trend is very similar to that of cocoa in the first months of the year. The reasons are similar,” analysts from Commerzbank said. In the case of cocoa, according to them, it is a poor crop in two key countries, Ghana and Ivory Coast. In the case of Arabica coffee, there are concerns that this year’s drought will make the crop in Brazil, a key coffee-growing country, particularly poor next year.
However, the price of Robusta, which is mainly used in the production of instant coffee and whose largest producer is Vietnam, rose to a 47-year high on Friday. Its price reached 5694 USD per ton. Later, it decreased slightly to 5503 USD/ton.
The price of cocoa also continues to grow. On Friday, it hit $9,437/ton, a 5-month high. It was later corrected to USD 9420 per ton. Cocoa prices reached their maximum in April this year, at the level of 11,722 USD/ton.
