Brazil's 2023 coffee crop seen larger at 65.8 mln bags - broker

The firm said in a note that the revision was due to better-than-expected agricultural yields in several producing areas in Brazil, the world’s largest producer and exporter, which more than offset some localized crop losses such as in Espirito Santo state.

HedgePoint now sees arabica coffee production at 43.3 million bags from 42.3 million bags previously, while robusta production is seen at 22.5 million bags, 1 million bags more than the previous view.

With the changes for Brazil, the company updated its projections for the global coffee supply balance in the 2023/24 season (Oct-Sept).

It now expects arabica coffee supply to have a surplus of 1.64 million bags against 640,000 bags previously, while the robusta coffee deficit is seen at 3.16 million bags, 1 million bags smaller than in the previous projection.

HedgePoint analyst Natalia Gandolphi said in the note that European coffee processors had increased buying of Brazil robusta coffee as local prices fell below that of similar coffee from Vietnam or Indonesia, confirming a market trend. (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Jan Harvey)
By Reuters