US arabica coffee futures finished lower on Monday on momentum selling and position rolling out of the May contract into July by funds, traders said. "You had a little bit of pressure because of a high export figure out of Brazil," one trader said about the world's biggest coffee producing country.
Brazil exported 2.13 million 60-kg bags of green coffee in March, up 13 percent from 1.89 million bags shipped a year ago, the Council of Green Coffee Exporters of Brazil (Cecafe) said on Thursday.
The New York Board of Trade open-outcry May coffee settled down 1.20 cents or 1.1 percent at $1.0965 per lb after trading $1.0910 to $1.1160. July slipped the same to $1.1255 and the rest likewise lost 1.20 cents.
On the Intercontinenal Exchange NYBOT electronic platform at 1:54 pm EDT (1754 GMT), the May contract was 1.40 cents lower at $1.0945 per lb while July fell 1.45 to $1.1230. NYBOT and the London market were closed on Good Friday. London remained shut this on Monday after Easter on Sunday and reopens on Tuesday.
Also on the supply front, Brazil's IBGE government statistics institute, on Monday forecast the 2007/08 crop at 37.5 million 60-kg bags on Monday, up from the official government crop supply agency's (Confab) forecast stated in December at around 32 million bags. "I don't think people really follow them," one broker said about IBGE. Traders tend to follow private forecasters or the official government crop supply agency Confab forecast.
In March, the Italian roaster Illycaffe forecast Brazil's new coffee crop would exceed the official forecast by 9 percent. And Guatemala exported 455,304 60-kg bags of coffee in March, up 21.5 percent from the same month in 2006, Guatemalan grower group Anacafe said on Monday.
Meanwhile, Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, said it plans to start a roasting facility at St. Matthews in Calhoun County, South Carolina. NYBOT estimated coffee futures volume at 8,931 lots, compared with the 9,092 lots officially traded on Thursday, when 6,615 contracts traded electronically. Open interest dropped by 1,781 lots to 149,945 contracts as of April 6. On the weather front in Brazil, there is a chance of showers through on Tuesday with drier conditions later in the week amid near to above-normal temperatures, DTN Meteorlogix said.
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