Coffee falls as growers in brazil sell after rally; sugar drops

Coffee fell in New York as growers in Brazil, the largest producer, sold beans after prices climbed to a three-month high. Sugar also declined.

Prices climbed 6 percent over the past week to the three- month high yesterday. Growers in Brazil’s Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states have picked 93 percent of the crop, according to Somar Meteorologia. Warm and dry weather this week should favor harvesting and bean drying, Marco Antonio dos Santos, an agronomist at the company, wrote in a report e-mailed yesterday.

“Brazilian producers have been good scale-up sellers during the recent rally,” Luis Rangel, vice-president of commodity derivatives at ICAP Futures LLC in Jesey City, New Jersey, said in an e-mail today. “Roasters are not chasing it higher.”

Arabica coffee for December delivery fell 0.3 cent, or 0.1 percent, to $2.8415 a pound by 8:37 a.m. on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Robusta coffee for November delivery climbed $18, or 0.8 percent, to $2,380 a ton on NYSE Liffe in London. The price earlier today rose to $2,411, the highest since Aug. 24.

Robusta coffee climbed on speculation European stockpiles will fall with supplies limited in Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of the variety. Arabica beans are grown mostly in Latin America and favored by specialty coffee shops, while robusta beans are harvested mainly in Asia and Africa.

Robusta Inventories

Robusta coffee inventories with valid grading certificates were 398,090 metric tons as of Aug. 22, down 1.6 percent from two weeks earlier, a third consecutive fall, NYSE Liffe figures on Aug. 25 showed.

“The tight supply in the robusta market due to lack of farmer selling is likely supporting the price,” Keith Flury, an analyst at Rabobank International in London, said in an e-mail today.

Raw sugar for October delivery fell 0.27 cent, or 0.9 percent, to 29.62 cents a pound in New York. White, or refined, sugar for October delivery dropped $10.10, or 1.3 percent, to $770.50 a ton in London.

Brazil’s agriculture ministry’s crop-forecasting agency, known as Conab, will release its second estimate for this year’s sugar-cane crop at 9 a.m. Brasilia time today.

Cocoa for December delivery fell $29, or 0.9 percent, to $3,106 a ton on ICE. Cocoa for December rose 13 pounds, or 0.7 percent, to 1,952 pounds ($3,184) a ton on NYSE Liffe.