Will Katrina Affect Your Morning Coffee Answer Yes

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.