Discussion:
The purchase is the latest swoop by Japanese companies into commodities assets in Latin America and elsewhere, where profitability has been helped by relatively high prices for grains such as soy and corn, sugar and, in particular, coffee. Two months ago, Mitsubishi bought the same size stake in South American grains producer Ceagro CEGR.UL, which is controlled by Argentina's Los Grobo. Ipanema Coffees, a producer of specialty beans marketed to the upper end of the coffee market, was Mitsubishi's second agricultural investment this year in Brazil, a country it describes as strategic to its plans. Growers in Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, have profited as prices have risen due to tight supplies. Coffee prices doubled in 2010, and while prices have fallen in the last six months to about $1.85 a lb, they remain nearly 60 percent higher than the average for the past 10 years. Mitsubishi, Japan's largest trading house, said growing demand for coffee was a motive for
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Mitsubishi Corp buys stake in Brazil coffee farm
<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/03/
us-mitsubishi-brazil-coffee-idUSBRE8320YI20120403>