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Prices offered by shippers have soared in recent weeks and continue to do so. It seems that exporters are happy to slow down their selling activity and focus on milling and shipping. Volumes available internally are down as a consequence of past high activity and the current wet weather which is slowing down the movement of coffee from the growing areas to more urban towns and from there on to Addis. We believe that Export Registrations have surpassed all expectations and now the need to execute has come home, this has slowed the pace of new sales. Tensions between agrabes and shippers have not subsided and exporters continue to have a hard time “forcing” agrabes to fulfil commitments, with many preferring to hand back borrowed cash rather than deliver coffee which they sold elsewhere at higher prices. Logistics continue to heavily hamper export business. Coffee ready for export is taking over a month to get from Addis on to a vessel, due to the lack of containers and space on vessels. Shipping lines are in disarray providing conflicting information on vessel schedules, allocations and where stuffed containers are. We are expecting increased delays in July viz-a-viz June; and June was not great!
The conflict in Tigray is worsening, for more info: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-57818673
Birr devaluation vs the greenback seems to be flattening out a tad in the last 2 months, having previously devalued 10% between Jan and May 2021:
Birr 44.04 = USD 1
Have a good weekend!
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