DavidoffTradeCoffee ranks second after “black gold” in the global trading product league tables, ahead of sugar and rice. The most important futures and options market for coffee is the Coffee Exchange in New York, where Arabica coffee transactions are conducted. The second greatest coffee variety, Robusta, is mostly traded in the London Coffee Terminal Market. What both exchanges have in common is that all deals are finalised on terms negotiated in advance. The idea is to keep price fluctuations at a minimum. In spite of this, crises, frost, political upheaval or transportation problems can affect the price. The price for the coffee beans – the so-called “bean rate” – is determined by the mechanism of supply and demand. Since the delivery can only take place several months later, the negotiations are largely based on speculations. Whenever negotiations are conducted with brown beans, the object of desire is the harvest from 70 countries. States in South and Central America, Asia and Africa produce more than seven million tons of coffee per year, 75% of which is destined for exportation. From 1887 until 1956, the commercial city of Hamburg had its own coffee exchange in the so-called Speicherstadt (Warehouse City), of which only the stately interior remains nowadays. |