# Coffee: Trading

New York for Arabica, London for Robusta

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/trading/

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

Arabica trades on the ICE Futures US 'C' contract in cents per pound; Robusta trades on ICE Futures Europe in London in dollars per tonne. Physical coffee is priced as a differential to these futures, adjusted for origin and quality. A few large merchants, such as Neumann, ECOM, Olam and Louis Dreyfus, buy from exporters and supply roasters. Some East African coffee is still sold at auction, as Radetzki & Wårell note. Pirrong reports credible evidence of squeezes in coffee futures, among other markets.

#### Where it is bought (buyers)

- Roasters and soluble makers in the US, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and Japan buy green coffee from trading houses or direct from exporters
- Indian soluble plants (CCL Products, Tata Consumer, Nestle India) buy domestic robusta and import Vietnamese and other robusta for re-export
- Specialty roasters buy single lots at quality premiums

#### Where it is sold (sellers)

- Brazilian cooperatives and exporters ship from Santos
- Vietnamese exporters ship robusta from Ho Chi Minh City
- Colombian exporters and the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation sell washed arabica
- Indian curers and exporters in Karnataka sell mainly to Italy, Germany and Belgium (the EU takes about 60%)

#### Exchanges and benchmarks

| Venue | Contract | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **ICE Futures US** | Coffee C (arabica), 37,500 lb, US cents/lb | world arabica benchmark; deliverable from many washed origins against certified stocks |
| **ICE Futures Europe** | Robusta coffee futures, US$/t | world robusta benchmark |
| **B3 (Brazil)** | Arabica coffee futures | local hedging in Brazil |
| **India** | no coffee futures | Indian prices are set as differentials to ICE; the Coffee Board publishes indicative prices |

#### Contract types

- Price-to-be-fixed (PTBF) contracts: a differential over an ICE futures month, with the futures leg fixed later
- Outright fixed-price contracts for specialty lots
- Green Coffee Association (GCA) and European Coffee Federation (ECF) standard contracts
- Roaster supply agreements with trading houses, often with certification premiums (Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, organic)

#### Top trading houses

- Neumann Kaffee Gruppe
- ofi (Olam Food Ingredients)
- ECOM Agroindustrial
- Sucafina
- Volcafe (ED&F Man)
- Louis Dreyfus Company
- Touton

#### How prices are discovered

- ICE Coffee C and London robusta settlement prices
- Physical differentials reported by exporters, brokers and price reporters
- ICO Composite Indicator Price and group indicators
- Coffee Board of India indicative prices for Indian grades

## Other sections

- [Summary](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/index.md)
- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/cycles/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/coffee/links/index.md)