Coffee fell in London, paring yesterday’s gains, as rising stockpiles of robusta beans capped the rally that drove the price to the highest level in three years on March 18. Sugar slid. Robusta coffee inventories with valid grading certificates stood at 302,490 metric tons as of May 2, up 3.8 percent from two weeks earlier, according to figures on NYSE Liffe’s website yesterday. Prices have fallen over $100 a metric ton since touching $2,672 a ton, the highest since March 2008. “Overhanging stocks and the expectation of large delivery against the May contract are weighing on prices,” Andrea Thompson, head of research and analysis at the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based CoffeeNetwork, said by phone today. Thompson correctly forecast on April 14 that robusta coffee inventories would climb above 300,000 tons, capping the rally. Robusta coffee for July delivery retreated $19, or 0.7 percent, to $2,563 a ton by 10:06 a.m. on NYSE Liffe in London. Earlier the price fell as much as 1.9 percent to $2,532 a ton. Arabica coffee for July delivery fell 0.9 percent to $2.857 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York. Certified stocks advanced as producers shipped beans to satisfy the expiry of the May contract on NYSE Liffe at the end of the month. Rallying coffee prices prompted Vietnamese farmers to accelerate sales, said Luong Van Tu, chairman of the Vietnam Coffee & Cocoa Association. Exports from the Southeast Asian nation rose more than 37 percent to 650,000 tons in the first four months of the year, according to preliminary data from the General Statistics Office in Hanoi. Exports of Brazilian robusta coffee soared in April to 318,598 bags, up from 22,855 bags the same period a year earlier, the nation’s exporter’s council, known as Cecafe, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Commodities Fall Overall selling in the commodities market also helped push the price lower. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI Spot Index of commodities fell as much as 3.6 percent, the fifth consecutive fall, data on Bloomberg showed. “From a technical point of view, robusta is being dragged down by general commodity selling,” Thompson added. White, or refined, sugar for August delivery fell $7.20, or 1.2 percent, to $575.10 a ton on NYSE Liffe. Raw sugar for July delivery dropped 0.20 cent, or 1 percent, to 20.66 cents a pound on ICE. Cocoa for July delivery fell 7 pounds, or 0.4 percent, to 1,878 pounds ($3,077) a ton in London. Cocoa for July delivery slid $17, or 0.6 percent, to $3,038 a ton in New York. To contact the reporter on this story: Isis Almeida in London at Ialmeida3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at Ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net.

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