US coffee weekly roastings down US roasters roasted 7.565 million 60-kilogram bags of green coffee between January 1 and June 6, down 2.45 per cent from the same period in 1997, according to statistics from Coffee Publications, Inc. released last week. Coffee roastings in the week ended June 6 were 365,000 bags, up 4.1 per cent for the same week in 1997, the figures showed.

Coffee consumption unchanged

Japanese coffee consumption this year will be little changed from 1997, but green coffee imports are set to decline, Sanae Yamada, advisor to the All Japan Coffee Association in Tokyo, told Dow Jones Newswires. Yamada said Japanese 1998 coffee consumption would be about 5.9 million 60-kilogram bags, unchanged from 1997 and down slightly from 5.97 million in 1996, according to provisional forecasts.

He said instead of importing coffee at a higher cost, due to the yen's depreciation against the dollar, Japanese roasters are looking to draw down domesticinventories. "Imports are showing a slowdown, but (domestic) stock levels have decreased," Yamada said. "So consumption is likely to be little changed." According to figures released May 29 by Japan's Finance Ministry, the country's green coffee imports during the first four months of the year totalled 109,198 metric tons, down 6.5 per cent from 116,843 tons during the same period last year.

Tokyo bourse starts coffee trading

The Tokyo Grain Exchange started trading coffee futures contracts on a trial basis last week, adding them as the fifth main commodity for the exchange after sugar, red beans, corns and soybeans. The TGE introduced the futures contracts for both arabica and robusta coffee, and if the trial is successful, formal trading could start in a few years.

Arabica, which is imported from Latin America, accounts for 70 per cent of total Japanese imports, while robusta from Southeast Asian nations accounts for 30 per cent. Although trading volume was active on the first day, prices wererather volatile, with a number of contracts falling to limit-low prices.

The most actively traded May 1999 arabica futures contract opened at Y26,030 a bag, and ended at a limit-low of Y25,230. (A bag is 69 kilograms.) Participants cited concerns about continued good weather in Brazil. Trading volume was active at 12,330 lots, with one lot consisting of 3.45 metric tons. Meanwhile, the May 1999 robusta coffee futures opened at Y22,770 per 100 kilogram, and ended at a limit-low of Y21,970/100 kg on a trading volume of 3,563 lots.

Uganda coffee factories shut

Ugandan coffee authorities have closed around 50 coffee processing factories since late May because of quality problems, an industry official said. John Byarugaba, head of the technical unit of the Uganda Coffee Trade Federation, told Reuters the closures were part of a routine exercise to ensure high coffee quality standards. "Many of these factories were either processing wet coffee or were not licensed to operate by UCDA (Uganda CoffeeDevelopment Authority)," he said.

About 400 factories operate in the coffee growing areas of eastern, southern and western Uganda. The country had poor crop results this season due to prolonged rains caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon. As a result, the coffee authority was forced to make a third revision to its coffee export forecast in March to 2.6 million bags from the 4.2 million expected last October.

In its latest figures, UCDA said the country had exported 152,563 bags (60-kilos each) in May, down 21.1 percent from 193,280 bags in the same month last year. Coffee exports accounted for U5 per cent of Uganda's total merchandise exports and 39.2 percent of its total exports in the fiscal year to June.

Indonesian cocoa prices soar

A tumbling rupiah boosted Indonesian cocoa prices last week but traders were nervous that soaring prices for consumer essentials would spark unrest which could disturb trading. "If I were (President) BJ Habibie, I would resign because things have become worseand worse," said one cocoa trader in Ujung Pandang, the provincial capital of the key-growing area of South Sulawesi.

"It seems to me the government has never anticipated that Japan will also face a currency crisis. People are busy talking about politics, but not the stomachs of the poor," said the trader. The rupiah sank close to its record low of 17,000 to the dollar on Wednesday on continued selling by both offshore and local investors, currency dealers said. They said investors neglected the relative stability in the region as the Japanese yen strengthened.

The rupiah was quoted at 16,050/16,500 against the dollar at 0650 GMT. Indonesia is suffering from its worst currency crisis in decades and the tumbling currency has led to soaring prices for essentials. Traders said prices for fair, as average beans rose to 16,500 rupiah/kg against 14,000 rupiah/kg last week. Fob prices hovered at $1,400/tonne.

Brazil coffee belt awaits cold front

According to meteriologists Somar, a new cold front andcold air mass is expected for the middle of next week when there will be rain over Brazil's coffee region. The cold air mass, whose pressure was measured higher at 1,030 mb, would temperatures to fall in coffee areas at the start of next week.

But there was no risk yet of frost, it said in a bulletin. "There's no risk because it's still very weak...it's also in a continental position. It hasn't got much intensity," said Somar meteorologist Marcos Massari.

The cold front was expected to form in the south of Brazil and cause cloudbursts in north Parana during the week, after which it would across southeastern coffee areas. Somar said there was no risk of critically low temperatures while the current medium and high level cloud cover remained from last week. No rain was forecast for Sao Paulo or Minas Gerais.

Colombian coffee unchanged

Colombia's National Coffee Growers' Federation said it was leaving the country's internal coffee price unchanged at 300,000 pesos per 125-kg load. Under a formulain effect since the start of the year, the federation has adjusted the internal price twice weekly to track price swings on the world market as closely as possible.

But it has set 300,000 pesos as its minimum support price for Colombian growers, and refused to go below it despite the recent slump in spot arabicas in New York. Tuesday's decision to leave the internal price unchanged marked the fifth consecutive time the federation has held it steady since June 2.

Brazil cocoa consumption falls Brazil's consumption of cocoa beans reached 102,000 tonnes in the 1997/98 crop year, down on the expected annual average due to Brazil's economic slump, the Bahia Commercial Association said last week.

The Association said that Bahia's annual consumption of cocoa products had averaged an approximate 110,000 tonnes in recent years, more than 60 percent of Brazil's production. "It (consumption) has come slightly down from previous years because of the economic crisis, we've been in a slump since last year and peopleare spending less money," said Association vice-president Thomas Hartmann. He said the Brazilian chocolate industry, like many others in the world, no longer purchased cocoa beans from local producers for processing.

Brazil sells 70,000 coffee bags

Brazil government sold 100.00 per cent of the 70,000 60-kg bags of coffee stocks offered to the soluble sector at its auction last week, according to Banco do Brasil which held the electronic sale. Total revenue from the auction reached 7.73 million reais ($6.69 million), it said.

Uganda expects higher coffee crop

Ugandan coffee production is expected to recover in 1998/99 to 3.6-4.0 million 60 kg bags, from 2.6-2.7 mln bags in the current 1997/98 year the Ugandan Coffee Development Authority said last week. "We are looking at going back to 3.6-4.0 million bags", William Naggaga, secretary of the authority told Reuters. "The rains have been good and the flowering has been excellent," Naggaga added on the sidelines of the 11th European CoffeeCongress.

(Compiled from Reuters and agencies)