NEW YORK: Global coffee exports rose 2.6 per cent in the first three months of this marketing year and climbed 1.3 per cent in December, year-over-year, the International Coffee Organization said on Friday, as prices traded around two-year lows.
Exports of coffee rose by 2.6 per cent to 26.9 million 60-kg bags in the first quarter of the 2015/16 crop year, which began in October, compared with the same period a year prior. They reached 9.31 million bags in December, up from 9.18 million bags in December 2014, the data showed.
Exports of arabica coffee for the 2015 calendar year rose to 70.17 million bags, up 1.8 per cent from 2014. Robusta exports fell to 42.3 million bags, down 7.6 per cent from the prior year, ICO data showed.
Coffee exports from top grower Brazil were up 5 per cent in the first three months of 2015/16 at 10.2 million bags, while exports from top washed-arabica grower Colombia jumped by 14 per cent. During the same period, spot arabica futures prices fell to the lowest price in nearly two years.
In Vietnam, the world’s biggest grower of robusta, coffee exports dropped by 11 per cent in the first quarter of 2015/16, ICO data showed. Vietnamese farmers held onto their beans in hopes of higher prices as the benchmark robusta futures contract fell to a two-year low in November 2015. This month, prices extended losses to $1,339 per tonne, the lowest since May 2010.
