Rain, rain go away!
The Indonesian rainy season had a long winded and abnormal sequence at the end of 2017. The dry season there usually starts in December, but growers witnessed huge upsets to their normal ops with heavy rainfall well into 2018. This is affecting our Kokowagayo prices going into 2018 significantly, with our costs almost double what we paid last year.
With the normal harvest running from December to January, which didn’t happen, reports we have received from brokers we are in contact with say the yields are down a whopping 72%. Reports from the areas affected indicate that rains knocked down a significant portion cherries, and higher than normal humidity, particularly at high altitudes have crippled normal sun drying operations, which in turn has led to further losses due to molding and spoiling.
The numbers, according to the Association of Indonesian Coffee Exporters, exports for February were only 4,042 tonnes, a decline of nearly 10,000 tonnes from February 2017.
All of this to say, we recommend buying now as prices later in 2018 will likely climb to levels from the 2008 era we saw with the mold and rust pandemic.
NOTE: Our current prices reflect this reality as we expect higher than normal replacement costs to replenish our inventory throughout 2018 of this popular Pacific Rim coffee.
For your continued reading:
https://ictcoffee.com/ict-update-supply-crisis-indonesia/