Arabica Coffee Slips With Traders Weighing Brazil Frost Risk

© Reuters.

(Bloomberg) -- Arabica coffee futures slipped from a multiyear high, as traders assess the risk of frost threatening crops this week in top-producer Brazil.

Futures for September delivery fell by as much as 2.6%, after rising to the highest level since 2014 on Monday. Still, more cold weather is forecast for some of Brazil’s key growing regions from Wednesday into the weekend, spurring concerns about a supply squeeze for Arabica beans favored by companies including Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ:SBUX).

Frost in Brazil, which accounts for 40% of global Arabica output, is threatening to drive coffee prices even higher amid broader worries about global food inflation and higher shipping costs as economies seek to reopen. Since July 19, Arabica futures have jumped by 32%.

Another cold snap could significantly damage already-battered coffee trees emerging from a month of extreme weather. Losses in Minas Gerais, the South American nation’s main coffee-growing region, could amount to 7% of last year’s Brazil crop, according to a Mercon report. Still, better-than-expected weather could pressure prices after the recent surge.

“It feels to me as though we are in a very precarious market environment here,” Alex Boughton a coffee and cocoa broker at Sucden Financial Ltd., said in a note. Another powerful frost could “easily” add 15-to-20 cents to prices overnight, he added.

Futures slipped 0.7% to $2.06 a pound by 11:09 a.m. London time. On Monday, they rose as high as $2.15, the highest since October 2014.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.