The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange has lifted the minimum price limit of coffee to allow prices to adjust to the declining 
coffee prices on the New York Reference market.
As of last week the price of Arabica Coffee has shown the sharpest decline since last October of 2010 on the New York commodity future exchange market.
The price for Arabica registered last week was a 16 month low dropping to 1.8620 a pound.
The decline in price is said to be due to high crop forecasts for the 2012/13 harvest estimated at 146 million bags ensuring supply. The high crop forecasts are especially based on the harvest expectation of Brazil estimated at 52 million bags.The price of coffee on the Ethiopian market and on the Commodity Exchange floor had stayed above the international price over the last weeks as coffee suppliers were reluctant to supply a the lowered prices and chose to sit on their stock.
The move to lift the minimum lift is expected to push suppliers at the lowered prices on the trading floors.
The Exchange moved to lower the minimum limit temporarily as the prices of commodities on the floor are not allowed to oscillate at more that +/- over two consecutive days.
It may be that the limit was lifted too late to as the price coffee remains too high and has not followed international trends according to EUGE ATTE customers of Ethiopian coffee located in Hamburg.
Source: The Reporter
