Coffee Prices Soar To Three-Year High

Coffee futures surged for a fourth day on mounting concern that supplies will stay low until July, when Brazil’s harvest arrives.

Coffee is so scarce in the U.S., the world’s largest consumer, that commercial rosters are paying as much as 45 cents a pound above the May futures contract price for top-grade Colombian coffee, traders said.

The supply shortfall follows rain damage to crops in Colombia and Central America that reduced yields and shrank reserves in the U.S.

“Coffee rarely goes for more than a few cents above” futures, said Paolo Bozzo, a coffee trader at Grupo Noboa Inc., a unit of Ecuador’s Grupo Noboa conglomerate. Yet for roasters, “with so little coffee around they’ve got to pay.”

Coffee for May delivery rose 13.7 cents to $2.5275 a pound on the Coffee Exchange, the highest price for a contract closest to delivery since July 13, 1994, when prices rose as high as $2.635 a pound. Coffee for July delivery rose 12.5 cents to $2.229 a pound, the highest for an active contract since prices reached $2.74 a pound, also on July 13, 1994.