Coffee may perk up as Brazil drought hurts robusta crop

New York

THE outlook for Brazil's robusta coffee crop, the world's second-largest, has worsened in recent weeks amid drier-than-normal weather, fuelling speculation that prices will find support.

Coffee-growing areas in Espirito Santo, the country's biggest robusta producer, got about 50 per cent of the usual rainfall in the past three weeks, with more below-normal precipitation forecast through early March, according to Speedwell Weather in Charleston, South Carolina.

Espirito Santo's plantings were already stressed by a lack of moisture from September to November, said Jorge Esteve Jorge, vice-president for Empresa Interagricola SA, a unit of commodity trader Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. Erratic weather may cause beans to drop from coffee trees and make the plants more susc…