Brazil Drought Deja Vu Makes Coffee 2017’s Commodity Winner

  • Hedge funds lift bets on rally for first time since November
  • J.M. Smucker, maker of top-seller Folgers, boosts retail price
Photographer: Mike Kenneally
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The best part of waking up is likely to get more expensive.

Coffee futures are on a tear as regions of Brazil beleaguered by drought last year are heading for more of the same parched conditions. There’s been no significant rain for almost a month in Espirito Santo state, the nation’s top grower of the robusta variety. It’s gotten so dry that the government has reinstated limits on irrigation from rivers.