Leaf Rust Outbreak Having Little Effect on Coffee Futures

The leaf rust (roya) epidemic, while incredibly damaging to farms and farmers throughout Central America, is having little effect on the global market, according to a New York stock exchange report from Bloomberg:

Coffee fell for a second day inNew York on speculation that even leaf rust endangering Latin American crops won’t be enough to dent a glut of stockpiles.

Beans in warehouses monitored by ICE Futures U.S. are the highest since March 2010.

Arabica futures for May this morning dropped just shy of 1 percent, to $1.421 a pound. “The roya issues have not been enough yet to put a serious bid underneath the market as the trader will likely continue to be skeptical about the matter for the time being,” Sterling Smith, a futures specialist at Citigroup Inc. in Chicago, told Bloomberg.

The full story: Bloomberg