SAO PAULO, Brazil – Quotes of arabica and robusta coffee dropped in the Brazilian market in April. The CEPEA/ESALQ Index of arabica type 6, hard cup or better (delivered in São Paulo city), dropped 3.72% between March 31 and April 28, closing at 457.68 BRL (144.24 USD) per 60-kilo bag on April 28 – the lowest value in real terms since July 2014 (prices deflated by the IGP-DI from March/17).
Regarding robusta, the CEPEA/ESALQ Index of robusta type 6, screen 13, EspÃrito Santo State, closed at 391.10 BRL (123.26 USD) per 60-kilo bag on April 28, a staggering 10.8% down in April. The current values are the lowest since October 2015, in real terms.
As for arabica, price drops were linked to the nearness of the 2017/18 harvesting, which should start in May, dollar oscillations and sharp drops of international quotes.
In this scenario, the pace of trades was quite slow in Brazil, mainly in the second fortnight of the month, also due to the holiday of Tiradentes, on April 21, in Brazil.
Besides, in mid-April, the gap between asking and bidding prices limited trades of larger volumes. Processors were trading only to make cash flow.
Regarding robusta, trades were slow as well. As harvesting advances in EspÃrito Santo, purchasers preferred to retract. According to Cepea collaborators, processors were waiting for the harvesting to advance to purchase larger volumes of coffee.
Weather
Isolated rains in some arabica producing regions in late April favored crop development. In EspÃrito Santo and Rondônia, rains should not hamper robusta harvesting, according to Cepea collaborators.
On the other hand, some rains may relieve stress of coffee trees, mainly in ES, where drought damaged production in the last years.
