Good morning and happy Monday to you all

Chilly start to the week here, we had frost alerts all around this morning. It’s Spring for sure as we look out there’s lot of blooms all over, but the cold is not giving way just yet.

After getting past first notice day in May, trading last week in the C could best be described as sideways, stuck in a 91/95 sideways channel in July. That usually means the next break will dictate the next 5-10 cents of direction and so far, this morning, looks like the market will be testing downside support.

Around the world of coffee, Producers/Exporters left with the difficult decision of what to do with this market. For the most part, coffee is not playing “hard to get”, however, producers have stopped following the market lower. Preferring to offer outright pricing rather than price to be fixed differentials. Sellers set the value of the coffee and are increasingly leaving it up to buyers to access if they really want it or not.

We saw a little better flow in the interior of Colombia last week, hopefully this means the Mitaca will finally start to flow a little more consistently. Protest in the Cauca region have lifted, enabling shippers from that area to start to plan to send coffee to port again. We heard a little Brazil and Robusta biz done, and being examined this week. We’ll start to look towards the traditionally colder weather season in Brazil now.

A report in the news stated Kraft-Heinz is having difficulty finding a buyer who will pay their price for Maxwell House. A sign of the times perhaps, this time honored brand has a little tarnish?

We have a nice FTO SHG Mexican from the GRAPOS Coop which is expected in New York on May 1. We have a Sidamo Grade 3 just into port in NY waiting on Continental to go get it as well. For both of these coffees, the pre-shipment samples were excellent. We have a fresh delivery of New Crop Tarrazu now, less than a container load, in Continental. If you’re looking to save a little money, we have a few bags left from the previous crop at a discount to the newer coffee. There is a small amount left of some micro lot Brazils we recently brought along to try, along with about 220 bags of RFA Brazil 2/3 fine cup as well, we really liked the cup of this one, and think the micro lots are really interesting. They pair really well with our micro lot from Colombia.

We have some exceptional coffees from Sumatra (conventional and Fairtrade Organic), Papua New Guinea – along with 40 bags of PB coming on 5/9, and exceptional SHG Honduras EP genuine Marcala (conventional and FTO) and an FTO Nicaragua which are now in Continental.

As always, we’d love to help any way we can. Want to see a few of the samples above, just ask we’ll get them to you PDQ.

The Armenia Team