http://www.theinfozone.net/news_stories/infozone-news_Business_.html
August 30,2005 --(IZ)
Hurricane Katrina will also affect your morning coffee
Just one simple example of how widespread the ramifications of
Hurricane Katrina will be is likely to be the supply, and price of
coffee. Most of the South American coffee bean crop is brought in to
America through the Port of New Orleans. Additionally, that coffee is
warehoused in New Orleans. Those warehouses are now under water.
Coffee Futures: "The New York Board of Trade declared a "force majeure"
on coffee deliveries at the Port of New Orleans due to Hurricane
Katrina. That means deliveries won't be made until a date to be
determined by the board. And as of Aug. 30, no further delivery notices
may be issued for coffee to be delivered in the Port of New Orleans,
NYBOT said, "until the conditions of the warehouses and coffee located
there can be determined." September coffee closed 92.6 cents a pound,
up 1% Monday, ahead of the news."
"New Orleans is a city steeped in coffee tradition. For more than 150
years coffee growers in Central and South America have been sending
their crops to the United States on ships that traveled through the
port of New Orleans. To this day, the city is one of the largest
centers for coffee imports, warehousing and roasting. If you catch the
breeze right along the riverfront, you can smell the rich scent of
fresh beans moving through roasting facilities in the Fauburg Marigny."
New Orleans has seen other ports chipping away at its dominance as the
biggest port for coffee imports. The Port once has over 1/3rd of all
coffee imports going through, today, that number is down to 1/4th of
the complete traffic. Over 1000 people, have, or perhaps had, jobs in
the cities' coffee bean roasting businesses.