After the excitement of a week where prices seesawed on fears of a frost and the realisation that there was no frost, trading in Ethiopia settled down to a more lethargic stance. Many shippers sold as the market approached 230 c/lb but retracted as the market tumbled. Liquidity issues forced the hand of some Washed […]
This week the NY market had quite a trading range due to recent weather concerns that never materialised into a serious problem. In this “yo-yo” environment trading is quite frustrating for all, however some business did materialise. Some exporters took the opportunity to sell has the terminal market rallied however a fair amount of business […]
The April Export figures are in, unsurprisingly shipments are sharply down vs April a year ago and the previous month (March 22). A combination of logistical problems (which we have been discussing last couple of weeks) and the terminal market downturn since the latter part of February are reflected in this very poor export performance […]
We are going to have to discuss shipping again! We thought that things could not get worse but they have. One of the main shipping lines out of Djibouti would normally operate 1 vessel a week however during the whole of April operated 1 vessel and again in May will only operate 1 vessel, with […]
We are all aware that shipping has been difficult in the last few months as a direct consequence of the pandemic and due to the more Ethiopian reason of decreased economic activity due to war reducing containerised imports. In the past we have always been able to play one shipping line against another depending on […]
We all know that Ethiopia has a long and strong tradition of coffee drinking seeped in ceremony; currently the local market is flooded, as overseas buyers remain reluctant to pay up. Again we saw offer prices drop this week and with Thursday’s surge in NY some of the most aggressive ones got hit. However, trading […]
Following on from 20 K MT + shipments in February, March exporters reached 27.7 K MT slightly more than March 2021 so on track for another big export year in 22/23. Moreover, mills in Addis are full of coffee and processing at full capacity so we are expecting these strong export figures to continue in […]
There are increasing offers from Ethiopian shippers, the last flurry of trading in February (before the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent drop in terminals prices) was a while ago and shippers are returning to the market. However, offer levels remain at levels too high to generate much business, one feels that eventually lower prices (below […]
In a rather bizarre twist, the Coffee & Tea Authority decided this week to increase considerably the Minimum Registration Prices. Why would you do that in a declining terminal market? Minimum registration prices have been irrelevant in the past few months as bids, offers and traded levels far exceeded these. However with the recent decline […]
Coffee is not changing hands, stakeholders with coffee stocks, whether farmers, middlemen or exporters, are sitting on them! Why is this happening? In 2 words: Finance and Price. Shippers that own expensive Washed parchment that has tied up their cash, cannot find an overseas buyer willing to pay 100 over plus. In an environment of […]
