Good morning and happy Monday to all of our friends,
Before we speak about all thing’s coffee, let me remind all that this coming Friday October 11 will start the New York Coffee Festival. Friday is “trade day” many of us will be working from the Festival, and as such, won’t be as accessible as we are generally. Anything we can do to help you with your needs, be they purchasing or moving coffee before Friday, would probably be helpful for both of us. We thank you for your help with this and want you to know we value your friendship and your business, and so want to make sure you’re happy in anticipation of what will be a very busy few days.
Ok, now to the matters at hand. The market traded between hope and despair again last week. Absolutely stuck between support at 98 and overhead resistance the market first tried to move higher and got over 1.02 for the early part of the week and worked hard to stay there, only to give up by Friday where we once again fell to test underlying support. Early this morning we broke that .9800 support and went as low as .9675 but snapped back to the 98 level and just above where we sit as we right this. Surely some macro factors had a hand in the market, as did a bit of fund buying and the COT at the end of the week showed the funds bought back about 4K lots to end up just over 40,000 lots short.
Weather in Brazil and Colombia reported to be a little better in the last days, and we’ve attached a few photos we’ve received over the weekend from friends in Brazil who visited the areas of Varginha, Tres Pontas, Boa Esperanca, Campo Belo and Ilicinea. They sent us about 50 photos from their trip around the area, most of them are amply summed up by the photos we’ve enclosed. In all they noted good flowering all throughout the area and it appears another good crop is expected in these areas.
All in all, it remains a task to buy coffee around the world. Farmers will not chase the C market lower and so the lower in the range the market finds itself, the bigger the differential to it becomes, which really when you think about it, is fair.
Recent notable arrivals here in New York is one box of Sidamo Natural that we bought because we loved the pre-shipment sample. It should be in Continental very soon. We’ve received at Continental a Sumatra Mandheling Gr 1 RFA and Guatemala and Colombia FTO all 3 of which we’ve now cupped and can say they’re really nice, our Q Grader John Coyne would be happy to share his cupping notes if you’re interested. We also just received a Vietnam Wet Polished Robusta Scr 16 as well.
We’re down to just a few bags left of Kenya AA and AB in the warehouse from the last shipment, with reinforcements due at the end of this month that probably won’t be in warehouse until early November.
Brazil 17/18, Colombia EP 10, FTO, RFA and a few Supremos, Costa Rica Tarrazu, Guatemla Antigua and SHB, we have a little less than a container of Sidamo Gr 4, are all in Continental ready to sample or deliver. We have really nice lots of FTO and conventional Sumatra Mandheling ready to go, as well as just a few bags left of PNG Sigri AA – we’re down to 66 bags now as we wait on new deliveries that are not close yet.
Please let us know how we can help you today