Robusta coffee rose to a 10-year high in London on concern that a lack of rain in Brazil will continue to squeeze supplies from the world's biggest grower.

"The weather in Brazil is dry, dry, dry," Jeff Cooper, an analyst at Ambrian Commodities Ltd in London, said. "You get the merest hint of prolonged rain and they'll hit the exit button."

Robusta fbr November delivery rose as much as $155, or 7.5% to $ 2,220 a metric tonne on the Liffe exchange, the highest since June 1997. Prices are headed for a weekly gain of more than 13% the biggest advance since March 2005.

The price of robusta beans, used to make espresso and instant coffee, has rallied 45% in the past year, threatening to crimp profit growth at companies such as Nestle SA. Chief executive Peter Brabeck­Letmathe said in August that higher raw material costs would weigh on profitability through the first half of 2008. Brazil's main coffee­growing regions of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais are unlikely to see significant rainfall over the next seven days, US weather forecaster Meteorlogix LLC said in a report.

Supplies are already showing signs of strain. Global coffee exports in August fell 13% from a year ago as shipments declined from Brazil and Vietnam, the International Coffee Organization said. Fortis, Belgium's biggest financial-services company, on September 28 cut its forecasts for supply surpluses of arabica and robusta coffee because of stronger-than expected demand. The market for arabica beans, used by coffee house operators such as Starbucks Corp, will have a surplus of 1.49 million bags in 2006-07, the bank said in a joint report with VM Group. That's about 3,00,000 bags fewer than forecast in August.

The anticipated surplus for robusta beans was cut by about the same amount to 1.09 million bags.

Coffee exports from Ethiopia, Africa's biggest grower of the beans, fell 10% in August, accord­ing to data from the ministry of agriculture and rural devclop-ment.

The lions of Africa country shipped 15,118 tonne of coffee valued at $41.5 million during the month, compared with 16,856 tonne worth $35.7 million in August 2006,the Addis Ababa based agency said in a report handed to Bloomberg News

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