Good morning,
We hope as you are reading this, you are safe, taking the necessary precautions as advised by health authorities. It’s truly been an historic time for all of us.
First and most important as we try and keep you updated on stories related to the pandemic and our service:
Countries around the world have reacted to the virus pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Coffee origins are no exceptions. Some, like Colombia, have asked their citizens to stay home and shelter in place. The USA/Canada/Mexico borders have been closed. There are exceptions for essential goods and services like food and transport, those seem to be going with modified schedules. There have been some slow downs to shipping, but so far at least, coffee is flowing, albeit a bit slower.
Here in the USA, our offices, our warehouse partners and truckers, are working as best we can. Staffing has been modified to best meet their needs and the best practice provisions of health and safety organizations. We have traders in the office each business day though only those necessary to keep things running. All of our traders have the ability and the permission of our managers to work from home and many are. Our logistics are running as normal for now.
Please put into your planning a bit of a delay owing to the current situations. While all are working hard, things are far from normal and will probably be that way for quite some time. We cannot rule out delays and perhaps at some point in time, possible suspensions of services as the world reacts to the pandemic. We’ll do our best to keep you posted.
The coffee market was notable for it’s strength at a time many others had none. Macro factors like currencies, interest rates, flows of capital have served to dampen enthusiasm in markets around the world. However, as we’ve been talking to you most recently, supply shortages exist in Colombia and Brazil as we anxiously try to get to the new crops in both places. Even Centrals are in short supply seeing differentials go higher across the board. There’s been a rumor in the market recently that a fair amount of certified stocks have been committed and that stocks will begin to see larger drawdowns, time will tell. When the best is gone the best remains. We’ve seen pickup in demand for nearby and spot parcels as nearby demand tries to catch up with buyers stocking their shelves in case they have to stay home. We see funds did not play a big roll in the recent trading, according to the COT released on Friday they added about 1000 lots of longs. We think we’ll continue to see a slow march higher.
As above we’ve moved quite a bit of nearby/spot coffees recently, but we still have a nice inventory. Spot just arrived we have a nice lot of Supremo that just went into Continental last week. We’re already down to 225 bags. We’ve also just received into the warehouse, a nice box of Brazil 2/3 Screen 17/18. We have a container of RFA certified Costa Rica Tarrazu that will arrive on the 27th of March. Also, just into the warehouse are some nice Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, including a small lot that comes from a co-op that supports women. Fresh Mandhelings will arrive on April 3rd. Please have a look at our inventory list for the usual staples like FTO Centrals, Perus and Sumatras, conventional Kenya AA and AB which are really very nice, Panamas, New Guinea, Tarrazu, and Natural Sidamo.
We’d love to help if we can. Please be safe.
All the best
Your friends at Armenia