Rising Robusta Coffee Prices

Audio 01:28

Robusta coffee beans came out after being roasted traditionally at a coffee producer.

CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP

By: Altin Lazaj

4 min

The prices of robusta coffee listed in London have increased throughout the past week.

Bad weather in Vietnam and containment measures in several countries are pushing prices up.

Publicity

Health measures and containment implemented in several countries, are contributing to an increase in coffee consumption at home, which benefits Robusta.

More bitter, this variety is used in soluble coffee and is therefore consumed more at home.

This uptrend for robusta is expected to continue in the near term, as even after containment, telecommuting will still be widely practiced.

However, faced with this rising demand, production is likely to be lower than expected.

Because in Vietnam, the world's largest producer of robusta coffee, the harvest is threatened by bad weather.

Major storms have been hitting the coffee growing regions of the country for several weeks.

A situation which therefore pushes the prices of robusta upwards.

As for the arabica variety, of which Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter, prices are less sustained.

Of more noble quality, the Arabica is widely sold in bars and restaurants as an espresso.

Its consumption is falling because of the tightening of the measures put in place to counter the spread of the pandemic in many countries.

Added to this is an exceptional harvest of this variety this year in Brazil.

Prices are also under pressure due to the weakness of the Brazilian real against the dollar.

Agricultural commodities are largely traded in greenbacks.

The exchange rate then stimulates exports of Arabica and thus contributes to further congestion of the world market.

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