Earthquake near Indonesia triggers rise in coffee futures

Fault line falls in wake of tsunami

By Walt Breitinger
Times Correspondent

Partially spurred by an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, coffee futures rose last Monday as traders pondered how much damage might have occurred to the coffee production there.

The earthquake, measuring an 8.7-magnitude, took place near the major coffee producer on the same fault lines as the December 26 tsunami.

However, some traders doubted that it inflicted any injury to coffee since the December quake did not hamper production. As predicted by those bearish market participants, Indonesia's coffee industry was reported minimally impacted by the earthquake, hence leading the market lower on Tuesday.

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