Arabica coffee futures closed higher Tuesday largely in response to the softer U.S. dollar. Lightly traded March coffee settled up 170 points, or 1.32%, at $1.3035 per pound on ICE Futures U.S. Most-active May coffee closed up 170 points, or 1.30%, at $1.3275.

“Coffee is enjoying some dollar weakness as much as anything,” said Jack Scoville, vice president with Price Futures Group. A weaker greenback tends to support commodities by making them cheaper in other currencies, thus potentially helping demand. Shortly before coffee trading closed, the ICE March dollar index was down 0.395 point to 80.105.

The euro climbed against the dollar after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announced it had taken fiscally strapped Greece’s debt off its ratings watch.

Meanwhile, Scoville said, there are signs of tighter supplies, with coffee from Central America scarce. The International Coffee Organization earlier this month revised down its estimate of 2009-10 global coffee output, partly due to a disappointing crop in Colombia. Meanwhile, the harvest in Brazil hasn’t yet begun and is at least a month away, Scoville said.

Source : FutureSource

Coffee prices in February were down compared to the levels recorded in January 2010, with the monthly average of the ICO composite indicator price falling from 126.85 US cents per lb to 123.37 US cents per lb. The average of the 2nd and 3rd positions on the New York and London futures markets fell by 5.9% and 3.7% respectively.

Nonetheless, prices remained relatively firm, mainly as a reflection of reduced supplies of Colombian Milds and climatic difficulties affecting many exporting countries, which contributed to marked volatility in prices.

On the other hand, the situation is less favourable in the case of Robusta prices, which have fallen by almost 15.4% since February 2009 and have a differential of 89.98 US cents per lb with Other Milds in February 2010.

 Coffee market report February 2010

Orange juice futures fell Tuesday, pressured as traders locked in profits from the highs above $1.50 a pound and as Florida’s citrus belt received beneficial rain in recent days. Nearby May orange juice lost 1.25 cents, or 0.82%, to settle at $1.5040 a pound.

Volume was extremely thin, however, and market participants didn’t give much weight to the day’s activity. Instead, traders were focused on the larger markets like the U.S. dollar, gold and crude oil with the Federal Reserve’s announcement on interest rates.

 The Federal Open Market Committee, as expected, held rates steady with no significant change in the language to suggest the currently accommodative rate stance would change any time soon.

“Everybody was pretty much focused on that FOMC meeting, and I don’t think anybody wanted to jump in front of that,” said Spencer Patton, analyst and chief investment officer at Steel Vine Investments in Chicago.

The attention garnered by the Fed announcement meant there was little interest in markets like orange juice, which explains the light volume, he said. Florida’s citrus belt has received ample rain recently, taking topsoil moisture levels to 72% adequate and 22% surplus, with just 1% short and 5% very short, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed.

Subsoil moisture is rated 67% adequate and 24% surplus. The plentiful moisture is expected to boost tree growth and development as the bloom for the upcoming 2010-11 season begins in some areas, a broker said. Areas of the belt had high winds last weekend, but because the bloom was not yet full they had little effect on flower droppage, the USDA said in its weekly crop progress report.

The Valencia orange harvest progressed, and 15 processors remained open to accept the fruit. In the week through Sunday, growers harvested 1.553 million boxes, up from 616,000 boxes the previous week.

Source : FutureSource

The mayor of Palma del Rio, José Ruiz value losses for 3.5 million euros, in infrastructure alone. During the last three months an unexpectedly heavy rainy season has affected at least 1000 hectares, mainly of citrus.

That is only “an estimate” highlighted Mr Ruiz. The Mayor was asked by the Government of Andalucia to make a preliminary but urgent assessment of the damage caused by the rain.

Once the harvesting season starts, the estimations will be more exact. At the moment, navel oranges have been less affected, but expectations for varieties such as salustiana and cadenera are not so positive. In the region at least 30 to 35% of citrus are declared as losses.

 Local governments expect a more direct help of the Juntas and the central government.

Based on information by El Día de Córdoba

Copyright: www.freshplaza.com

Cebu-based Southern Partners and Fair Trade Center, Inc. (SPFTC) has signed a grant contract with the Japanese Government to upgrade its mango processing facilities and provide new equipment in its Naga City, Cebu plant.

SPFTC Managing Director Geraldine M. Labradores and Ambassador Makoto Katsura signed the agreement Wednesday at the Japanese embassy in Manila.

The project, valued at $93,910 (about R4.3 million), will be funded through Japan’s Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Projects (GGP).

Philippine annual revenues from the mango industry amount to some $1,400 million. Yet, small mango farmers who are directly involved in mango production, have not fully benefited from such industry proceeds.

The SPFTC has built the fruit processing plant in Naga City to serve as a direct link between producers and consumers and is advancing fair trade practice by purchasing farm products at fair prices.

Its activities have contributed to an increase in income by small farmers. However, due to the capacity limitation of the equipment they own, only limited amounts of fruit can be processed per day.

Source: mb.com.ph

Job losses are looming in the fruit canning industry due to the threat of destabilisation by the strong rand, an industry body warns. “As a developing country, South Africa cannot accept further job losses and should follow the lead of many other similar countries to ensure that exports are not strangled by an overvalued currency,” SA Fruit and Vegetable Canners Association chairman Rudi Richards said in a statement.

The strong rand had placed the export sector, particularly fruit canning, under significantly more strain in the global recession. An industry delegation presented its case at the trade and industry parliamentary portfolio committee hearing earlier this month.

“During the hearing, the industry… praised the elevation of agri-processing, which could support labour-absorbing export industries in rural areas.”

The export-driven R1.5 billion fruit canning industry was trapped between the current rate of exchange, approximately 20 percent stronger than last year this time, and local cost increases, including the much-publicised recent electricity hikes.

Nassos Martalas, chief operating officer of Langeberg and Ashton Foods, the country’s largest fruit canner, called for equitable market access into key markets, particularly of SA products into the European Union, as well the non-reciprocal treatment of duty-free access of EU products onto the local market.

In SA the fruit and vegetable canning industry provides approximately 30,000 jobs in the Western Cape, at more than 30 factories in rural areas. About 17,000 labourers work at more than 1500 farms supplying the industry. The industry currently supports more than 120,000 dependents.

Source : Timeslive

Le dollar restait en baisse face à l’euro mardi après la fin de la réunion de la banque centrale américaine (Fed), qui a maintenu son taux directeur quasi nul et noté que le marché de l’emploi était “en train de se stabiliser.”

Vers 18H20 GMT, l’euro valait 1,3753 dollar contre 1,3671 lundi vers 22H00 GMT. Il se maintenait ainsi proche de son niveau d’avant la diffusion du communiqué de la Réserve fédérale.

Comme anticipé par les économistes, la Fed a maintenu son taux directeur proche de zéro, en vigueur depuis quinze mois, tout en notant que l’économie continuait de se renforcer et que le marché de l’emploi était “en train de se stabiliser.” Lire la suite…

Source : Trader-Forex

Arabica coffee futures closed lower Monday due to a stronger dollar and in a continued reaction to the producer selling that surfaced late last week.Most-active May coffee lost 145 points, or 1.09%, to settle at $1.3105 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. The July contract slid 135 points, or 1.01%, to $1.3270.

May coffee initially surged to a 2-and-a-half-week high of $1.3520 Friday before reversing course and settling lower. “We tested resistance Friday and did an abrupt U-turn,” said James Cordier, founder of OptionSellers.com. “We saw a lot of coffee for sale by producers at $1.35, probably a larger amount than speculators had anticipated.”

Furthermore, a stronger U.S. dollar and lower energy prices pulled coffee lower Monday, Cordier said. “The buyers from late last week turned into sellers,” Cordier said. Just before coffee trading closed, the ICE March dollar index was around 0.471 point higher. A strong greenback hurts commodities by making them more expensive in other currencies.

Currency analysts said the dollar was bolstered by comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, refusing to remove the yian’s peg to the dollar, as well as safe-haven buying of the dollar and yen after Moody’s Investors Service cautioned about the credit ratings of the U.S., U.K., France and Germany.

Meanwhile, April crude oil was around $1.66 a barrel lower, hurt by a lack of risk appetite on worries over the economy, sovereign-debt issues in Europe, possible tightening of credit by China and caution ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates Tuesday. Other commodities often follow moves in oilas large speculators move in and out of other futures at the same time as crude.

Sterling Smith, commodity trading adviser and market analyst with Country Hedging, commented that’s there was general long liquidation in most commodities–selling by traders to exit positions in which they previously bought.

Coffee is entering a seasonally weak period for the next 90 days or so, Cordier said. “We get into a smaller demand season as it warms up,” he said. “And the Brazilian harvest should be started in earnest in the next four to eight weeks. So we’re going to have slightly less demand and a whole lot more supply.” Smith and Cordier both put support for May coffee around $1.30.

Source : FutureSource

Brazil’s coffee exports fell 15 percent in volume terms in February, compared to the same month in 2009, but a rise in international prices resulted in a 1.1 percent increase in the value of foreign sales, the exporters council, known as Cecafe, said Monday.

The report released by Cecafe shows that nearly 2.23 million sacks, worth $361 million, were exported last month. The figures were affected by the crop’s two-year cycle, which yielded smaller production numbers than in the previous year, Cecafe said.

Brazil’s main export markets are Germany, which buys nearly 1 million sacks annually, and the United States, which purchases just under 800,000 sacks.

Italy, which buys slightly less than 500,000 sacks, Japan, with just over 340,000 sacks, and Belgium, where volume fell nearly 28 percent to just under 300,000 sacks, round out the list of the South American country’s top five customers.

High-quality arabica beans account for about 89 percent of Brazil’s exports.

Source : laht

Orange juice futures for May delivery recovered nearly all of their losses by the close Monday after the contract fell to a session bottom of $1.4765 as traders took profits. Most active May orange juice lost 20 points, or 0.13%, to settle at $1.5165 a pound–near the session peak of $1.5195.

May futures are finding solid support near $1.5000 a pound on a lower Florida orange crop this year due to a mid-January freeze. Prices are also supported because the oranges are small in size and yielding smaller amounts of juice, an orange juice broker said.

The U.S. Agriculture Department last week estimated the Florida orange crop at 131 million boxes, up 2 million from its February projection but down 19% from the previous year. The USDA lowered the average juice yield to 1.53 gallons per box, down 2% from February and an 8% decline from the previous year.

Orange juice futures were down early Monday as traders booked profits near the highs and as showers and thunder showers moved across the Florida citrus belt, bringing 1-2 inches of rain and locally heavier amounts over the weekend. Some areas reported as much as 4 inches of rain.

There were concerns in the market that conditions were becoming dry, with the new-crop bloom beginning in some citrus-producing areas. The weekend rains were beneficial and may help get the bloom off to a strong start, the broker said.

There are still concerns about next year’s crop, however, as it remains to be seen how much stress the prolonged January freeze put on the trees. Too much stress could hamper the crop as trees divert energy to repairing themselves instead of into fruit production. Much of the damage was thought to be confined to the leaves and not the wood, which may lessen the freeze’s impact on next year’s crop.

Source : FutureSource