The coffee growers in Panama are happy this year and this could continue in the future. This in from El Periodico. The price of grain on the Intercontinental Exchange in New York reached its highest level in the past 34 years.  

Coffee farmers around the world watched yesterday as the price of grain exceeded the barrier of U.S. $ 300 per quintal in the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), its highest level in history, while roasters reduced their purchases due to high prices.
Gerardo de Leon, Marketing Manager of the Federation of Coffee Cooperatives of Guatemala (Fedecocagua), explained that coffee prices have not stopped rising since October 20 exceeded the barrier of U.S. $ 200, to establish Sunday new record of $ 305 for the delivery position next September.  
The last time coffee reached U.S. $ 300 per quintal was in September 1977.
While this is good news, the purchase is very slow at high prices to buy coffee industry suffers for fear pass this increase to the cup or pound and the consumer no longer wants to pay, that’s basically what we have seen, he added.

Nicholas Virzi, director of the Faculty of Business Economics from the Universidad Rafael Landivar (URL) and an expert on the coffee market, explains that although prices are higher than ever, the exporters can not get money out of the country and Buyers are not paying for capital constraints are either postponing their purchases while waiting for the price drops.

A phenomenon that is occurring in the domestic market is that producers who had contracts signed at lower prices (between $ 1 and $ 2 a pound) not being respected and are falling behind on deliveries to the argument that the harvest is lost to try to sell their coffee at a higher price. This failure will cost in the future, Virzi said.

While purchases have become slower, De Leon believes that grain inventories globally are low and yields as well, so that buyers come to buy again and countries like Costa Rica, Colombia and Honduras have already sold their production while Guatemala is a half crop. According to latest statistics, Guatemala had exported about 2.5 million bags of 46 kilos and calculating a crop similar to last year, means we are 50 percent of production is still awaiting clearance, said the cooperative.
Virzi adds that international buyers can not postpone their purchase of coffee for all, in addition to high prices benefit the finer grains like Guatemala, as the low quality differential which makes it more attractive for consumers to pay a little longer to enjoy a better quality coffee.

While a weak dollar and speculation of funds that explore the commodity markets are driving up prices of gold, silver, oil and coffee, Virzi said the trend in the long run is that prices will remain high for cafe quality. Once buyers adjust to the new reality and can no longer postpone their purchases, the market will adjust.
Francisco Palarea Sinibaldi, president of Café Culture magazine, says that high grain prices are also an opportunity for growers to establish business and get better contracts for the next harvest.
The foreign exchange from coffee exports totaled U.S. $ 186.7 million during the first two months, an increase of 43.1 percent compared with $ 130.5 million admitted during January and February 2010 due to the price effect, according to statistics from the Bank of Guatemala (Banguat).
Maintained the upward trend of grain exports could exceed the record U.S. $ 705.6 million recorded in 2010 currency.