Poor Farmer

This post is intended to serve as a reference for the reasons behind the current price hike The Times of India March 13, 2008 BANGALORE: Is the cuppa of cheer heading towards a slide after having enjoyed price increase for a couple of years? The new pricing trouble stems from two factors: The exit of several large hedge funds from international coffee futures contracts and the fear of a glut due to a bumper coffee crop in Brazil. The Brazilian crop is expected to rise by about 10 million bags — to about 53 million bags (of 50 kilo each) — and is expected to hit the market in September-December. With derivatives, equities and share markets slumping, global hedge funds have increasingly found commodities like gold, coffee and rubber as good fund-parking spaces. They invest heavily into commodities futures contracts and exit when prices peak. That’s what happened in the first week of March and that in turn started sending the coffee prices down. According to United Planters’ Association o...

Allan Odhiambo And Abyssinia Lati Business Daily (via AllAfrica ) March 12, 2008 Consumers should be prepared to dig deeper into their pockets as coffee companies increased prices by up to 30 per cent to cushion themselves from record prices of unroasted beans. Taking cue from other international companies such as the giant Kraft Foods and Procter and Gamble that have raised prices on jars of instant coffee and packets of ground coffee, leading local companies said the increases were inevitable if they were to continue on the profitability curve. "The bulk of the industry has had to make price adjustments to try and improve on profitability that is threatened by the record high global prices," Erick Omondi, the general manager of Dormans Coffee Limited told Business Daily in an interview. A price list Dormans uses with effect from February 26, 2008 its upmarket blend coffees go for a price 30 per cent higher than the previous ones while the prices of average value coffees ha...