Robusta coffee futures close lower in thin trading

Robusta coffee futures close lower in thin trading

LONDON (Reuter): Robusta coffee futures were slightly lower at
midday yesterday with traders noting lack of follow-through
buying and selling pressure from Indonesia, the world's largest
robusta producer.

"The buyers have retrenched...They just do not want to buy at
these levels," said one trader.

At midday, benchmark September robusta contract was down US$9
at $1,530 a ton after a high of $1,544.

And despite tension in Indonesia - Asia's largest coffee
grower - after the worst weekend riots in 20 years, traders said
coffee was coming through.

"Indonesia is still selling its crop, the market is well
supplied...It's the roasters who have backed off and are awaiting
the new crops," he added.

But overall turnover on the exchange was a thin 574 lots at
midday. "It has been very quiet...We are still in a summer lull,"
said one.

Traders on Thursday remained skeptical that hurricane damage
to Costa Rica's 1996/97 coffee crop had now reached an estimated
20 percent of output at 3.1 million 46-kg bags.

"It is a bit too early to say what the damage is. They are
just picking numbers at the moment," said another.

Costa Rica - a key supplier of green coffee to the UK - was
lashed by hurricane Cesar over the weekend, prompting fierce
rains and flooding.

"Main and side roads in (the coffee producing zones of) Perez
Zeledon and Coto Brus have been almost completely destroyed,
which puts at risk all the output of the area, estimated at
600,000 46-kg bags," Alonso Lara of Costa Rica's Coffee Institute
(ICAFE) told Reuters.

Cesar killed at least 28 people and left thousands homeless in
Central America over the weekend, with Costa Rica the worst hit
of the small Central American nations.

Coffee futures are struggling to consolidate after sliding to
27-month lows of $1,496 a ton, basis September, last week but
technical analysts said on Thursday that there is still a risk
that $1,496 will be tested.