Poor Farmer

Highlight: * Weather, global market boosts prices * Buyers turn to other producers regionally By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura Reuters March 7, 2011 KOMOTHAI, Kenya - In Kenya's coffee growing area of Komothai, record prices at auction have farmers dreaming of a better future and driving to improve their crop. Record high commodity prices have rattled finance ministeries in the West, but poor growers see things differently -- especially in Kenya where reforms now mean more profits trickle down to them. Coffee from the local co-operative society fetched $1,011 per 50-kg bag in January, a heady price for any coffee farmer around the world. "Now you can build a house, you can pay school fees, you can buy inputs. Before this, you couldn't do any of that," said Duncan Kimani, 52, pruning excess twigs off bushes with green berries that will be ready for harvest in April. "Now we can live like humans." Kenyan coffee prices have hit records this year -- ...

Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, is holding out for even higher prices before releasing stocks the government amassed a year ago, the country's top coffee official told Reuters in comments that could lend fresh support to the biggest rally in 14 years. The per capita consumption of roasted coffee in Brazil reached the historic level of 4.81 kg in 2010, exceeding the 1965 record, according to Brazil's coffee industry association (Abic). The per capita consumption of 4.81 kg is equivalent to almost 81 liters of coffee per person per year. Photograph by: Nacho Doce, Reuters. -  The Ottawa Citizen By Peter Murphy The Ottwa Citizen February 19, 2011 Brazil, the world's biggest coffee producer, is holding out for even higher prices before releasing stocks the government amassed a year ago, the country's top coffee official told Reuters in comments that could lend fresh support to the biggest rally in 14 years. Despite tightening supplies which have ca...

Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups are displayed at the company's visitor center and cafe in Waterbury, Vermont. Photo: Herb Swanson/Bloomberg By Chris Prentice Bloomberg February 18, 2011 Coffee extended a rally to the highest since 1997 on signs that global demand will outstrip production as investors snapped up shares of U.S. retailers including Starbucks Corp. in a bet that sales will increase. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., the largest U.S. seller of single-serve brewers, trades in New York at 295 times cash flow, more than any company in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, according to Bloomberg data. Arabica-coffee futures have doubled in the past year as adverse global weather slashed supplies including in Brazil, the world’s biggest producer. Consumers are drinking more coffee in the past year as demand has rebounded amid the global economic recovery. Inventories monitored by ICE Futures U.S. have plunged to the lowest since April 2000. Green Mountain shares hav...

By Fred Ojambo Bloomberg February 18, 2011 African coffee producers should diversify their exports to tap the crop’s “bright future,” said Jose Sette, acting executive director of the International Coffee Organization. Broader-based foreign revenue would give support during slumps, Sette said yesterday in an interview at an Eastern African Fine Coffee Association conference in Arusha, Tanzania. Growing countries should invest in expanding productive activities instead of “depending on aid from abroad,” he said, singling out research and training as key areas. Arabica coffee traded in New York has climbed 12 percent this year after jumping 77 percent in 2010. Rising global prices should motivate producers to boost output and expand Africa’s share of world supply after it fell by half in the last 25 years, according to Sette. “Coffee has a bright future for the continent if addressed well,” he said. Still, “Africa must diversify and not depend on the sector alone,” Sette said...

President Dilma Rousseff drinks coffee during last year’s election campaign. By Claudia Assis MarketWatch February 8, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO — Brazilian computer programmer Marcio Carneiro has spent about $4,000 in the last two years selecting just the right equipment to feed his passion: coffee. To at least some of his countrymen, the object of his affection is so culturally ingrained it doesn’t merit more than a passing thought and a quick trip a corner store. But Carneiro and other coffee enthusiasts are a big part of what is putting smiles on the faces of Brazilian coffee growers, who are already enjoying coffee prices at multi-year highs. A surge in domestic demand, which is keeping more of Brazil’s export-grade beans at home, may drive coffee prices even higher. We will likely see new highs until the third quarter of this year,” said Rodrigo Costa, an analyst at brokerage Newedge in New York. Coffee futures (INTERCONTINENTAL:CC11H) have gained 82% since January 2010. Th...

Reuters February 8, 2011 NEW YORK - J.M. Smucker Co (SJM.N), the top U.S. packaged coffee maker, raised prices for most of its coffee products on Tuesday, as the cost of beans has soared 85 percent in eight months. [ID:nSGE7170CT] Coffee prices, which are affected by crop conditions, currency fluctuations and market speculation, have a history of volatility. This popular beverage is still considered an affordable luxury in the developed world. Below is some of the recent history of its price moves in the futures market and on store shelves. (Graphic on coffee and Smucker's share prices) * May 1997: New York spot arabica coffee futures KCc1 surge to $3.18 per lb. * 1997: The then Folgers Coffee Co raised prices for Folgers coffee by a staggering 29 percent due to soaring green bean prices. This was followed by another price hike of nearly 10 percent a couple months later. * May 18, 2010: J.M. Smucker Co (SJM.N) raised list prices for majority of its Folgers, Dunkin...

By Debarati Roy Bloomberg January 28, 2011 Coffee futures surged to a 13-year high on signs that supplies from Colombia, the world’s second- largest producer, may be shrinking. Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers said the harvest in Antioquia, the largest producing region, may drop below last year’s levels after excessive rainfall. Before today, futures jumped 77 percent in the past 12 months as adverse weather reduced global crops. “There is a production deficit, and we hear that several coffee traders and brokers are demanding higher prices from companies,” said George Kopp, a senior market analyst at International Futures Group in Chicago. “Also, there is technical buying.” Arabica coffee for March delivery advanced 6.6 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $2.4355 a pound at 9:54 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Earlier, the price reached $2.4635, the highest since June 1997. The commodity may rise to $2.50 should the settlement top $2.42, Kopp said. Brazilian ...