NEW YORK, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Green coffee inventories in Japan, one of the world's five largest consumers of the beverage, were at 2.39 million 60-kg bags at the end of December, the lowest amount for that month since at least 2017.
December stocks were 8% below the amount seen in the same month a year earlier, and 17% less than the historical average for the period, according to data from the Japan Coffee Association compiled by the Coffee Trading Academy (CTA).
Coffee destination stocks, or the amount of beans stored at non-producing countries, have been falling continuously in recent years.
Analysts say high interest rates are one factor behind the trend, since it increases costs for roasters to finance the building up of stocks. Crop reductions at some large producers, due to severe weather, along with shipping difficulties also contributed to cut stocks at destination, they said.
Green coffee stocks in Europe were also at the lowest levels for at least the last seven years in December, CTA said, at 7.28 million bags, an amount 43% smaller than in the same month a year earlier.
The attacks by militants to ships in the Red Sea is delaying the flow of coffee from Asia to Europe.
Vietnam is the main supplier of robusta coffee to European roasters. Stocks of that type of coffee in Europe were even lower, 47% below the level seen a year earlier, CTA said. (Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira, editing by David Ljunggren and Nick Zieminski)
