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Coffee warehouses in New Orleans dry after Hurricane Isaac


Reuters

August 30, 2012

(Reuters) - Thousands of bags of green coffee beans stored in New Orleans warehouses survived Hurricane Isaac unscathed, two operators said on Thursday.

"Everything is fine. No major damage to the buildings and no damage to stored product," said Allan Colley, president of Dupuy Storage and Forwarding in New Orleans, in an email to Reuters.

"Luckily we do have power, telephone, Internet, etc., so we're open as usual today and will be fully operational by this afternoon as more of our employees return."

Kelly was unable to get to one of its warehouses but he said it appeared to be fine as there was no flooding in the area.

Dupuy Storage is currently holding coffee in four of its buildings. One of its coffee warehouses, which is now behind a reinforced flood wall, was flooded in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina.

Isaac was a slow-moving Category 1 hurricane when it hit New Orleans on Tuesday, leaving a soggy mess across a widespread area along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast.

The J.M. Smucker Company, which owns the familiar Folgers coffee brand and operates two manufacturing facilities in Louisiana, resumed limited production on Thursday after implementing its hurricane preparedness plans.

"There has been no significant damage or flooding at our manufacturing facilities," a Smucker spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.

The Folgers coffee processing plant in New Orleans is the biggest in the country and was forced to shut down when Katrina pounded and flooded the city in 2005.

Port Cargo Service currently has three coffee warehouses in New Orleans.

"Everything seems good. We've had doors blown in. These big doors that the trucks drive through, they don't typically hold up, so the doors blow in. Didn't damage anything," said Kevin Kelly, owner of Port Cargo Service.

Dupuy Storage and Port Cargo Services warehouses are both certified by ICE Futures U.S.

ICE certified arabica stocks are nearing 1.95 million bags, the highest in nearly two years but still historically low. New Orleans is storing just over 90,000 bags of certified arabica, almost 5 percent of the total now being held in the United States and Europe, ICE data showed.

Port Cargo Services also houses lead, zinc, copper and aluminum, and Kelly said these warehouses also seemed "fine".
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Reporting By Marcy Nicholson; editing by Gunna Dickson

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