NEW YORK: Global arabica coffee prices hit record highs above $3.60 per lb on Wednesday as Brazil, by far the world’s largest producer, has few beans left to sell and as worries over its upcoming harvest persist.
Dealers said 70 percent-80 percent of Brazil’s current arabica harvest has been sold and new trades are slow. Brazil produces nearly half the world’s arabica beans, a high-end variety typically used in roast and ground blends.
The country’s recent weather has been more favorable after a severe drought last year. Still, the upcoming crop will be 4.4 percent smaller than the previous, according to Brazilian food supply agency Conab.
“Global coffee supplies remain limited. Vietnam is progressing slowly with sales of its robusta crop. The arabica harvested in Central America and Colombia is taking longer to get to the market, and Brazilian farmers don’t show much interest in selling more,” said broker HedgePoint Global Markets on Wednesday.
Arabica coffee futures on the ICE exchange, a contract used globally to price physical coffee trades, hit a record high of $3.6945 per lb earlier, bringing gains for the year up nearly 15 percent. The contract later closed up 2.5 percent at $3.6655 per lb.
Robusta coffee, a generally cheaper variety used mostly to make instant coffee, rose 0.9 percent at $5,609 a metric ton.
Coffee exports from India, the world’s fifth largest robusta producer, are expected to decline more than 10 percent in 2025 due to lower production and reduced carry-forward stocks from last season’s crop.
Dealers said farmers in both India and Vietnam, the world’s top robusta producer, are holding back sales in anticipation of further price gains and that in Brazil, some 80-90 percent of the current harvest has been sold.
Broker Sucden said in a report that Brazilian farmers are also prioritizing local sales over dollar-priced exports even though the latter fetch more money as their financial position has improved significantly over the past two years.
It added the country’s current buffer stocks have eroded to an estimated 500,000 bags versus some 8 million bags traditionally, meaning any additional weather disruptions could have an outsized impact on global coffee prices.
Sucden sees the global coffee market recording a fourth successive deficit this season.
In other soft commodities traded, raw sugar rose 1.1 percent at 19.45 cents per lb, rebounding strongly from last week’s five-month low, while white sugar gained 2.2 percent at $522.90 a ton.
New York cocoa futures rose 3.3 percent to $11,745 a ton, while London cocoa gained 1.6 percent to 9,138 pounds per ton.
Coffee prices surge to record highs above $3.60 per lb
https://arab.news/8nkbe
Coffee prices surge to record highs above $3.60 per lb
- Dealers said 70 percent-80 percent of Brazil’s current arabica harvest has been sold and new trades are slow
- Brazil produces nearly half the world’s arabica beans, a high-end variety typically used in roast and ground blends
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
