Coffee Imports Frustrated by New Orleans Crisis
Shipping at the Port of New Orleans has come to a halt as the area struggles to cope with massive flooding. After Hurricane Katrina, one index of 19 commodity future markets hit a 25-year high Thursday. One product expected to take a hard hit is coffee. Some 25 percent of America's coffee comes through New Orleans. Robert Nelson, president of the National Coffee Association, says that right now, 1.6 million bags of coffee are stored in warehouses there.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Many products and goods move through the port of New Orleans, and shipping in and out has come to a halt. Reflecting this, one index of 19 commodity future markets hit a 25-year high yesterday. New Orleans plays a big role in the US supply of coffee, for example. Before Katrina, 25 percent of America's supply came through there. Robert Nelson is the president of the National Coffee Association, and he said that right now 1.6 million bags of coffee are in area warehouses.
Mr. ROBERT NELSON (National Coffee Association): It appears as though many of the warehouses are in fairly good shape. I suspect, though, it'll be another couple of weeks until we find out the precise condition of those warehouses.
SIEGEL: Now obviously, coffee is down the list of priorities after human lives and hospitals and evacuating people, so how far off will it be before people actually go and get a look at the coffee stocks?
Mr. NELSON: Well, our first concern, of course, is the people that work in the industry, and now as soon as it's safe to get into the area, people will inspect the coffee that's there.
SIEGEL: Now if coffee were en route to the US from Brazil or from another coffee producer, and if we knew that New Orleans isn't ready to handle it, where do we go? Where's the port that we send the coffee to instead?
Mr. NELSON: Well, there are two issues here. One, as you rightfully point out, is the coffee that's currently on the ocean. Those ocean liners will be redirected, we believe, to Houston. And the second issue is there's many bags of coffee that have been ordered and have not yet made it to the ships. The majority of roasters that had coffee that was going to be loaded on ships have stopped those orders and indicated not to load it at this point in time.
SIEGEL: So there's going to be some coffee on the dock back in Brazil that isn't going to get loaded.
Mr. NELSON: Yes, and we have every reason to believe that coffee will be safeguarded and kept in a very sound manner, and that it will not take long, though, to redirect the logistics to get that coffee to secondary ports.
SIEGEL: What would be the biggest brand name we'd recognize that really depends on what's coming through New Orleans?
Mr. NELSON: I would say the largest brand name with an operating facility in New Orleans would be Folgers, but you also have other important companies like Community Coffee, Riley Coffee, Sara Lee, S&D Coffee.
SIEGEL: Mr. Nelson--that's Robert Nelson, president of the National Coffee Association in New York--thank you very much for talking with us today.
Mr. NELSON: You're welcome, Robert.
SIEGEL: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
Copyright © 2005 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.