Coffee prices revised downwards

The monthly report of the International Coffee Organization (ICO) shows that in December, coffee prices have suffered downward revisions, with the monthly average of the ICO composite indicator recorded a fall of 3.7% to 131.31 cents/pound, compared with the level of 188.90 U.S. cents / lb checked at the beginning of the calendar year.
This caused the average price for the calendar year 2012 reaching 156.34 U.S. cents/lb, value 25.7% lower than 2011, but still beat any other year of the past decade, although production costs may have increased over time. The fall in prices was particularly pronounced in the three Arabica groups, with Robusta’s submitting with a slightest drop of 1.1% compared to November.
In another field, it is noted that the crop year coffee exporting countries, whose crop year 2012/13 was launched in October, is beginning to reach the market in larger quantities. Worth mentioning, that this crop year has seen an increase in production in a number of countries, particularly in Africa and also in Indonesia. Brazil is currently the year of its biennial cycle of Arabica production is planned a record crop of 50.83 million bags, according to authorities. In this issue are covered 38.34 million bags of Arabica and 12.48 million bags of Robusta.
However, some Central American countries were hampered by adverse weather conditions, as well as coffee pests and diseases, particularly coffee rust and other, which may have an impact on the next level of production.
Also in this field, India reduced its estimate post-monsoon season of 2012/13 to 5.3 million bags. As a result, the provisional estimate for world production in 2012/13 was revised to 144.1 million bags, representing an increase of 7.2% compared to 2011/12. The world consumption continues to give good signals, particularly in emerging markets and exporting countries.
Another important fact to consider is that opening stocks in exporting countries for crop year 2012/13 are estimated at 15.1 million bags, the lowest level ever recorded.
Exports by all exporting countries totalled 9.2 million bags in November 2012, compared with 7.9 million the previous year. As a result, the total exports in the eleven months of calendar year 2012 (January to November) reached 103.5 million bags, an increase of 8.5% over the same period of 2011. A record level of 108.7 million bags imported by member countries was registered importers and Japan, in coffee year 2011/12.
Source: Hostel Vending Portugal