Unlike metals, coffee prices continued to rise in the third quarter of 2008 before falling back in the fourth quarter, suggesting that commodity traders may have been pushing prices higher than warranted by the fundamentals. Prices for the month of December 2008 were markedly lower than for the year as a whole, down 15 and 22 per cent for Arabica and Robusta, respectively.
Les cours du cacao s’étaient plus ou moins stabilisés entre 2004 et 2006 – à un niveau bien moindre qu’auparavant – mais ils sont repartis à la hausse en 2007, poussés par une demande soutenue.