The price difference between the world’s 2 most popular sorts of coffee was reduced dramatically in February. While the cost of the premium-quality “Arabica” coffee declined by 12%, “Robusta”, a more popular and cheaper sort of coffee, appreciated by 20%.
The prices were steadily declining throughout January amid expectations of abundant coffee harvests in Vietnam, which is the world’s major producer of “Robusta”. Speculators were accumulating short trades while anticipating lower prices. However, Vietnam sharply reduced its import of coffee in January, thus raising concerns over possible deficit because Indonesia and India (other major exporters of Robusta) start harvesting campaigns only in April and July correspondingly. The growth will definitely come to nothing in the near future.
According to the Department of Commodity Trading of , Vietnam reduced its export of coffee mainly due to the Lunar (or Chinese) New Year holidays, which lasted for 10 days in late January.
The Arabica market has been consolidating within the 197,75 - 207,5 price range over the last 2 weeks.
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In general, coffee prices are expected to keep declining until July because the weather conditions in coffee-growing countries are favorable, which suggests abundant harvests.
