Guatemala says coffee buying halts on high prices

GUATEMALA CITY,  Guatemala coffee growers said Wednesday the local coffee market was at a virtual standstill as exporters refused to pay record-breaking coffee prices, and farmers were being hit by high margins in the futures markets.

"In Guatemala and internationally the coffee market is paralyzed, exporters have suspended their buying," national growers association Anacafe said in a statement.

A lack of liquidity to buy coffee at prices which are hovering around three-decade highs and slow buying by international roasters were behind the halt, according to the statement.

"Before, international buyers financed positions in the futures markets at the contracted price," Anacafe said. 

"Now, it is practically impossible to take advantage of this mechanism because the coffee producers have to come up with the funds to maintain these positions."

Arabica coffee futures rose to a 34-year high on Wednesday and looked poised for further gains, boosted by both chart-based buying and supportive fundamentals.

May arabica coffee on ICE stood 3.90 cents or 1.4 percent higher at $2.9110 per lb at 1217 GMT after peaking at $2.9120, a 34-year high for the benchmark second month.
 

But Anacafe said exporters are offering to buy coffee at prices below market and recommended producers not sell their coffee until negotiating a better deal.
 

"For Guatemalan coffee producers, selling their coffee at this price is an unattainable illusion," Anacafe said.

In February , Colombia coffee exports up 12 pct

* Colombia expects output at 9-9.5 mln this year

* Arabica futures trading at 34-year highs

Colombia's coffee exports rose 12 percent to 659,000 60-kg bags in February versus a year earlier, while output grew 18 percent to 764,000 sacks in the same month, the country's coffee federation said on Wednesday.

Colombia, the world's top producer of high-quality washed Arabica, is expected to see coffee production this year reach at least 9 million 60-kg bags, the highest level since 2008, as better weather helps flowering, the federation says.

"The recovery of the coffee crop in Colombia during the last months of 2010 and the first months of 2011 is a consequence of favorable climatic conditions in the first quarter of last year," the federation said in a statement.

COFFEE & COCOA CLOSE REVIEW

* Liffe May robusta coffee ends up $95 at $2,557 a tonne after earlier rising to a three-year high for the second month of $2,586. Run-up in coffee prices led by ICE arabicas which surged to a fresh 34-year peak on Wednesday.
 
* Liffe May cocoa ends down 61 pounds at 2,259 pounds a tonne. Rally in cocoa prices driven by conflict in top grower Ivory Coast appears to have temporarily lost momentum.
 
* Liffe May white sugar falls $12.00 to close at $751.10 a tonne. Market remains range-bound, turning lower after failing to breach resistance at the upper end of the current trading band. *****

COFFEE AND COCOA FORECAST FOR TODAY & MARKET CLOSE RIVIEW , 9March 2011

U.S. arabica coffee futures hurtled to a 34-year top Wednesday and looked poised to charge higher, boosted by investment fund buying and slim supplies.

Cocoa futures retreated further from last week's 32-year peak but remained propped up by civil war in top grower Ivory Coast, while sugar edged down in range-bound business.

ICE's May arabica coffee futures soared 7.65 cents to close at a 34-year settlement peak at $2.9485 a lb, having also hit a 34-year intra-day top at $2.9665.
 

It was the third day in a row that arabica futures hit a 34-year high and the market appears to have posted its biggest three-day advance since December.

SOFTS-Arabica coffee hits 34-year high, charts bullish

* Coffee sets new peaks, charts point to further gains

* Cocoa rally loses some momentum despite Ivorian conflict

* Sugar seen rangebound in short-term

LONDON, March 9 (Reuters) - Arabica coffee futures rose to a 34-year high on Wednesday and looked poised for further gains, boosted by both chart-based buying and supportive fundamentals.

Cocoa futures slipped back further from last week's 32-year peak but remained underpinned by conflict in Ivory Coast while sugar edged up but remained within its recent trading range.

"Funds and speculators have come back into the (coffee) market in the last few weeks and the upward momentum is phenomenal," Andrea Thompson, analyst at CoffeeNetwork said.

May arabica coffee on ICE stood 3.90 cents or 1.4 percent higher at $2.9110 per lb at 1217 GMT after peaking at $2.9120, a 34-year high for the benchmark second month.

UK: Gbagbo cocoa nationalisation "a desperate act"

* Cocoa future breaks through 30-year highs

* Calls on Gbagbo to "leave with dignity"

ADDIS ABABA, March 9  - Ivory Coast incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo's move to nationalise the country's cocoa industry indicates his growing desperation, a British official said on Wednesday.

Ivory Coast state television reported on Monday that Gbagbo had issued a decree under which the state becomes the sole purchaser of cocoa in the world's top grower and handles its export to world markets.

"I think the nationalisation of the cocoa industry is a bad step for Mr. Gbagbo," Tim Hitchens, the Foreign Office's director for Africa, told Reuters in Addis Ababa.

India Coffee Exports Likely to Jump

MUMBAI – India's coffee growers, encouraged by global prices surging to a near 14-year high, are queuing to export the beans and look set to boost shipments by about a fourth in the current quarter, industry executives said Wednesday.

Coffee exports from India, Asia's third-largest producer, are likely to rise to 90,000 metric tons during the January-March period from 72,774 tons a year earlier, they said. Already, shipments during January and February have jumped 47% from a year earlier to 53,905 tons, while the export value doubled to $173.1 million, according to the state-run Coffee Board.

"Export volume has been good compared with last year as a lot of people want to take advantage of higher prices," said M.P. Devaiah, general manager of Allanasons Ltd., India's fourth-largest coffee exporter by volume.