Reuters, 07/05/2012
Weeks of wet weather at the outset of Brazil’s coffee harvest have slashed its potential to produce smoother, wet-processed beans, limiting gourmet supplies and reinforcing some roasters’ recent efforts to get by with inferior produce.
Concerns over the quality of Brazil’s crop this year fed into a 3.4 percent leap in the price of arabica futures on Tuesday on New York’s ICE exchange, taking prices to their highest in nearly six weeks with a close at $1.8045 per lb.
Brazil’s coffee crop is in the midst of a high-output year in the plant’s biennial cycle, with production rising and falling from one season to the next. Exporters forecast a large though sub-record crop, but due to rain, the slice of top-notch beans will be much smaller than hoped.
