Guatemala, Costa Rica Sell Coffee on Concern About Price Drops

Coffee growers in Costa Rica and Guatemala, Central America’s second-biggest producer, are stepping up sales on concerns prices will fall further, according to Volcafe, a unit of trader ED&F Man Holdings Ltd.

Arabica coffee on ICE Futures U.S. in New York has fallen 33 percent so far this year as traders sold the futures on anticipation of a record harvest in Brazil, the world’s biggest grower. The commodity is the worst performer on the Standard & Poor’s GSCI index of 24 raw materials.

“Some producers and intermediaries are offering their remaining coffee, fearing the bear move will continue,” Volcafe said in a report e-mailed today, commenting on Guatemala.

Growers in Costa Rica “are interested in selling the last current crop coffees amidst a falling ICE market,” the Winterthur, Switzerland-based trader said in the report.

Tropical Storm Carlotta, which developed into a Category 1 hurricane today on a path to the southern coast of Mexico, could affect the southern regions of Guatemala next week, Volcafe said. Carlotta, with winds of 80 miles (129 kilometers) per hour, was 330 miles southeast of Acapulco, Mexico, shortly before 11 a.m. Eastern time, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. The system is moving northwest at 12 miles per hour.

While business was “rather slow” in Guatemala, demand was “noted from several directions” in Costa Rica, according to the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at Ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.