December arabica coffee (KCZ26) closed up +3.20 (+1.03%) on Friday, and November ICE robusta coffee (RMX26) closed down -26 (-0.73%).

Coffee prices settled mixed on Friday as they consolidated above Thursday’s lows.  Arabica has support on tight supplies after ICE arabica coffee inventories fell to a 27-year low on Friday.  Robusta coffee is under pressure after ICE robusta coffee inventories jumped to a 9-month high on Tuesday.

On Thursday, arabica coffee fell to a 3-week low, and robusta dropped to a 2-month low on the outlook for Brazil’s coffee harvest to add more supply to the market.  Most warehouses in Brazil are no longer accepting new coffee supplies as space fills up, suggesting farmers holding back sales in hopes of higher prices will have to increase coffee sales as storage space dwindles. 

On Tuesday, arabica coffee posted a 7.5-month high and robusta posted a 3-week high due to the slow pace of Brazil’s coffee harvest.  Brazil’s Cooxupe co-op reported on Wednesday that 87.5% of the harvest was complete as of Aug 21, up 6 points from the prior week but still down slightly from 91.3% a year earlier.  Also, Safras & Mercado reported on August 14 that the Brazil 2026/27 coffee harvest was 90% completed as of August 12, behind 97% last year and the 5-year average of 94%.  Brazil’s arabica coffee harvest was 86% complete, behind last year’s 95%. 

Falling inventories are bullish for arabica coffee prices, as ICE arabica coffee inventories fell to a 27-year low of 223,976 bags on Friday.  By contrast, rising inventories are bearish for robusta coffee as ICE robusta inventories climbed to a 9-month high of 4,943 lots on Tuesday.

Coffee prices also have support from the devastating earthquake earlier this month in Colombia, the world’s second-largest producer of arabica beans.  Among the areas hit by the 7.4 magnitude quake were the coffee-growing provinces of Caldas and Risaralda, which account for about a quarter of Colombia’s production. 

Colombia has partially resumed coffee exports through the Buenaventura port, which handles most of Colombia’s coffee exports, according to a Bloomberg report on August 13 quoting the head of Colombia’s coffee exporters association, Asoexport.  Yet, traffic through the port remains intermittent and limited.  The report said the earthquake caused no significant damage to coffee processing and milling facilities, according to exporters.

Concerns that an El Niño weather pattern could hurt Brazil’s coffee crop next year are bullish for prices. Coffee trader Commercial said the El Niño weather pattern may delay rains in Brazil this September and October, when tree flowering normally occurs, hurting Brazil’s 2026/27 coffee crop. On July 8, the US Climate Prediction Center said the El Niño weather pattern that emerged across the equatorial Pacific last month will likely be one of the strongest in more than 75 years. This sets the stage for months of possible floods, droughts, and temperature fluctuations later this year that could hinder coffee production in Asia and South America. 

Below-normal rainfall in Brazil should speed up the pace of the country’s coffee harvest, a bearish factor for prices.  Somar Meteorologia reported last Monday that 0.6 mm of rain, or 11% of the historical average, fell in the week ended August 16 in Brazil’s Minas Gerais, the country’s main arabica-coffee growing region.

Soaring coffee exports from Vietnam, the world’s largest robusta producer, are bearish for robusta prices.  On August 2, Vietnam’s National Statistics Office reported that Vietnam’s 2026 coffee exports (Jan-Jul) rose by +21.1% y/y to 1.31 MMT.  Vietnam’s 2025 coffee exports jumped by +17.5% y/y to 1.58 MMT. Also, Vietnam’s 2025/26 coffee production is projected to climb +6% y/y to a 4-year high of 1.76 MMT (29.4 million bags).

The latest USDA biannual forecast was bearish for coffee prices.  On July 22, the USDA forecast that global coffee output in the 2026-27 season will rise by +6.0% (10.8 million bags) to a record 189.7 million bags, mainly due to improved growing conditions in Brazil.  The USDA expects global arabica production to rise +12% y/y, although robusta production is expected to fall by -0.7% y/y.  World ending stocks are expected to rise +1.9 million bags to 26.3 million bags.  On June 3, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) forecast a record 2026/27 Brazil coffee crop of 71.9 million bags, up +14% y/y.