Poor Farmer

Photo: Courtesy of Reuters via WSJ Coffee Traders Support Proposal to Add Country's Beans to Benchmark Contract By Anna Raff The Wall Street Journal October 14, 2010 Coffee traders backed a controversial plan to allow Brazil into the club of grower nations whose beans underpin world prices. The board of the IntercontinentalExchange Inc. now needs to sign off on the plan, which would bundle Brazil's arabica beans with coffee from 19 other nations, including Colombia and Kenya. Approval would mean that whenever a buyer of a futures contract on the exchange decides to take delivery of coffee, some of those beans may be Brazilian. By expanding supply, it may lead exchange coffee prices to fall. The proposal has been controversial, and has failed to gain traction several times over the past few years, because Brazil's beans are considered inferior to those of other growers. They don't go through the rigorous washing process that others do. But Brazil's bea...

* Brazil has been wanting to sell to ICE for years * Guatemala, Colombia oppose Brazil's to be deliverable * Final decision to accept sits with board of ICE (Recasts and adds details, comment from ICE) Reuters October 14, 2010 NEW YORK - Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, took a step this week toward its goal of selling higher-quality coffee beans to ICE Futures U.S. for inclusion in the world's benchmark coffee futures contract. The ICE Coffee Committee recommended to the exchange on Wednesday that it should allow washed and semi-washed coffee produced in Brazil to be delivered to the ICE Futures U.S. (ICE.N) "C" contract, the global benchmark. The recommendation follows a proposal placed under consideration in May. Brazil's coffee industry has pushed for years for this opportunity, which will provide the country with another selling opportunity. But coffee groups in other producing nations including Colombia and Guatemala oppose the idea....