Arabica Coffee Near 10 1/2 Week Low; Cocoa, Sugar Firm

  NEW YORK--Arabica-coffee futures were trading near a more-than-10-week low on Wednesday as

uncertainty over top grower Brazil's crop continued to cloud global supply forecasts.

  Arabica for July on ICE Futures U.S. were down 2.1% at $1.6740 a pound. Arabica coffee settled in

bear-market territory on Tuesday, having fallen more than 20% from an April high of $2.1480 a pound.

  Brazil's worst drought in decades hit coffee farms earlier this year, stunting the development of

some arabica-coffee cherries during a key maturation stage. Brazil is the source of one-third of the

world's coffee.

  But growers only started picking their crop in the last few weeks, making it difficult to gauge

the damage, industry members have said.

  "Of course, losses will occur," said Guilherme Braga, head of Brazilian coffee-exporters' group

Cecafe.  2

  But Mr. Braga said that only 10% of coffee has been picked and processed, and that amount "not

representative to allow more concrete opinion on losses." He said a quarter of the coffee would have

to be processed for a better estimate.

  July frozen orange-juice concentrate was down 0.4% at $1.6225 a pound, while cotton was 0.6% lower

at 86.83 cents a pound.

  Raw sugar for July was unchanged at 17.19 cents a pound. July cocoa was also flat at $3,070 a ton.