Coffee Prices Rebound Mildly Higher After Posting New Lows

July arabica coffee (KCN25) on Friday closed up +1.90 (+0.55%), and July ICE robusta coffee (RMN25) closed up +41 (+0.93%).
July arabica coffee prices Friday fell to a new 2-week low before rebounding higher on some pre-weekend short covering. Meanwhile, July robusta prices fell to a new 7-month low before rebounding higher.
Coffee prices remain generally weak due to Brazil's ongoing coffee harvest. Brazil's Cooxupe coffee co-op announced Tuesday that its members reported the coffee harvest was 13.7% complete, compared with 13.6% at the same time last year. Cooxupe is Brazil's largest coffee cooperative and Brazil's largest exporter of coffee.
Meanwhile, Safras & Mercado reported today that Brazil's 2025/26 coffee harvest was 35% complete as of June 11, slightly behind last year's comparable level of 37% but ahead of the 5-year average of 35%. The breakdown showed that 49% of the robusta harvest and 26% of the arabica harvest were complete as of June 11. Brazil's arabica harvest has been slowed by heavy rain in some areas.
Robusta coffee has support after ICE-monitored robusta coffee inventories fell to a 1-month low Friday of 5,177 lots.
Coffee prices have been under pressure over the past five weeks due to concerns about higher coffee production and ample supplies. On May 19, the USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) forecast that Brazil's 2025/26 coffee production will increase by 0.5% year-over-year (y/y) to 65 million bags and that Vietnam's 2025/26 coffee output will rise by 6.9% y/y to 31 million bags. Brazil is the world's largest producer of arabica coffee, and Vietnam is the world's largest producer of robusta coffee.
Recent above-normal rainfall in Brazil has eased concerns about dryness and is bearish for coffee prices. Somar Meteorologia reported Monday that Brazil's biggest arabica coffee growing area of Minas Gerais, received 23.4 mm of rain the week ended June 7, 207% of the historical average for this time of year.
In a bearish factor, ICE-monitored arabica coffee inventories rose to a 4-1/4 month high of 892,468 bags on May 27 and were modestly below that high at 846,291 as of Friday.
Smaller coffee exports from Brazil are bullish for prices. On Wednesday, Cecafe reported that Brazil's May green coffee exports fell -36% y/y to 2.8 million bags.
Robusta coffee has support from reduced robusta production. Due to drought, Vietnam's coffee production in the 2023/24 crop year dropped by -20% to 1.472 MMT, the smallest crop in four years. Also, Vietnam's General Statistics Office reported that 2024 Vietnam coffee exports fell -17.1% y/y to 1.35 MMT. Last Tuesday, Vietnam's National Statistics Office reported that Vietnam's 2025 Vietnam's Jan-May coffee exports are down -1.8% y/y to 813,000 MT. In addition, the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association on March 12 cut its 2024/25 Vietnam coffee production estimate to 26.5 million bags from a December estimate of 28 million bags. Conversely, the USDA's FAS on May 19 projected that Vietnam's 2025/26 robusta coffee crop would climb +7% y/y to a 4-year high of 30 million bags.
The USDA's biannual report on December 18 was mixed for coffee prices. The USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) projected that world coffee production in 2024/25 will increase +4.0% y/y to 174.855 million bags, with a +1.5% increase in arabica production to 97.845 million bags and a +7.5% increase in robusta production to 77.01 million bags. The USDA's FAS forecasts that 2024/25 ending stocks will fall by -6.6% to a 25-year low of 20.867 million bags from 22.347 million bags in 2023/24.
For the 2025/26 marketing year, Volcafe projects a global 2025/26 arabica coffee deficit of -8.5 million bags, wider than the -5.5 million bag deficit for 2024/25 and the fifth consecutive year of deficits.
On the date of publication, Rich Asplund did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.