Hello Stay Golden Friends!

I wanted to drop you all a note regarding the C Market price increases, the New York stock exchange for commodity coffee that affects coffee prices globally. As we all know coffee is traded as a cash crop commodity and prices fluctuate due to many factors. 

The market tends to ebb and flow based on the supply levels and distribution out of several of the leading producing origins, namely Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia/South Seas. When supply out of those countries is high and there is confidence in the futures, prices go down substantially, which is where we were at for basically ALL of 2019. Brazil flooded the market with copious amounts of low priced coffees.

I don't know if anyone has read recent articles in the national media about Brazil, but there is a lot of conversation about abuses of slave labor in the worlds largest coffee market. There is some thought that since this year was a year of heavier rainfall, which in turn reduced the yield of harvest substantially, pressure may have been applied to commercial grade farms to utilize unfair labor practices. As you could presume, confidence in coffee futures is down leading into 2020 and the Brazilian supply is again in question. The last time a problem occurred in Brazil was in 2018 where coffee prices sky rocketed to $1.35 on the C Market, which was a decade long high. A link to the Reuter's article can be found here.

From January of 2019 to October 2019 we have experienced the C Market stable between $.90-1.00. As of December, 2019 it jumped to $1.39.

I wanted to share two notes regarding all this news...