ICE arabica coffee futures finished a touch higher on Tuesday, from speculative selling under pressure from rains in top producer Brazil, dealers said. "Rain has obviously picked up and that's what pushed this market down. But the big question is how much rain do we get going out for the next month," another trader said, looking ahead to rains after flowering.
The ICE key December arabica trading on the floor rose 0.30 cents to $1.2385 per lb., trading in a range of $1.2230 to $1.2430. The rest settled from 0.10 to 0.35 cent stronger.
In electronic trade, December coffee was 0.30 cents higher at $1.2795 a lb. at 1:11 pm EDT (1711 GMT), with dealings from $1.2640 to $1.2830. DTN Meteorlogix predicted scattered showers and thundershowers through on Friday with mostly dry conditions on Saturday.
Overseas, robusta futures closed higher with January up $3 at $1,775, ranging from $1,767 to $1,783. Ice's robusta coffee March contract was flat at 80.85 cents per lb., with no trading range available at 1:10 pm.
In the world's largest robusta producer, late rains at the end of Vietnam's wet season have prevented coffee farmers from starting a new crop harvest on time this week, traders said on Tuesday. The harvest in the Central Highland coffee belt of Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, could start in November, about two weeks later than usual, they said.
ICE Futures electronic trade ends at 3:15 pm ICE estimated final pit volume at 1,823 lots, while electronic volume was unavailable at 1:12 pm. This compares to 2,474 lots that traded in the pit on Monday when 27,283 lots traded on the screen. Open interest rose 984 lots to 172,649 as of October 22, exchange data showed.