Demand for Tanzania’s benchmark coffee on the rise

Source: Bloomberg.com/apps/news

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) - Tanzania’s benchmark coffee grade rose 1.9 percent at an auction yesterday as buyers replenished their stocks amid reduced supplies, the Tanzania Coffee Board said.The top Arabica AA grade sold for as much as $172 for a 50- kilogram (110-pound) bag, compared with $168.80 a week earlier, the board said in an e-mailed report today. Supplies of the grade fell 18 percent to 4,112 bags from 4,987 bags last week, the agency said. Like last week, all the beans were bought, it said. Other grades equally gained after supplies declined and global prices improved amid fears of a smaller crop, the board said. Supplies at the third auction of the 2009-10 season fell 27 percent to 18,553 bags from 25,423 bags from last week, it said. Arabica accounted for 89.3 percent of the beans supplied, it said.Sales fell 17 percent to 18,553 bags from a week earlier because of the decline in supplies, the agency said.

Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-biggest coffee producer after Ethiopia, Uganda and Ivory Coast, reaps its crop from April through August. Arabica accounts for 75 percent of Tanzania’s output, while robusta accounts for the rest.

To contact the reporter on this story write to Fred Ojambo in Kampala via the Johannesburg bureau at amonteiro4@bloomberg.net