Coffee Tops $2 in Surge to Two-Year High on Brazil Drought Woes

Coffee futures topped $2 a pound in a surge to a 24-month high as drought conditions that started in January eroded prospects for crops in Brazil, the world’s top producer and exporter.

Rain will ebb after a cold front this week in Brazil’s coffee areas, Somar Meteorologia in Sao Paulo said yesterday. The southeast including Minas Gerais, the top producing state, is having the driest summer since 1972, the National Institute of Meteorology in Brasilia has said. Wolthers Douque, a U.S. import company, cut its crop forecast this year by 10 percent.