Coffee prices decline globally

Global coffee prices fell after US President Donald Trump removed 40% tariffs on imports of Brazilian agricultural products, including coffee and cocoa, in the face of growing concern among American consumers about rising food costs.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that retail coffee prices in the United States rose 40% year-on-year in September.

Trump’s cancellation of the tariffs he imposed on Brazil comes in the wake of a similar order announced last Friday to cancel customs duties on coffee and dozens of other agricultural products from producing countries.

Brazil, one of the world’s largest coffee growers, supplies the United States, the world’s largest coffee consumer, with about a third of the coffee it demands.

Arabica coffee futures on the Intercontinental Exchange fell by 4.6 percent to $3.5925 per pound, after earlier falling by more than six percent to their lowest levels in two months.

Futures prices for Robusta coffee beans, which are typically used in instant coffee rather than roasted and ground blends where Arabica coffee dominates, fell five percent to $4,400 a ton, after earlier falling eight percent.