Coffee Qualifies for EWRs

WASHINGTON - Feb 10/04 - SNS -- Coffee joins peanuts and cotton as the third commodity approved to obtain Electronic Warehouse Receipt (EWR) authorization and approval from USDA, says USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator James Little.

Warehouse receipts are title documents used in the efficient transfer and marketing of agricultural products.

Congress, when enacting the Grain Standards and Warehouse Improvement Act of 2000, granted the Secretary of Agriculture authority to govern the establishment and maintenance of electronic systems under which EWRs related to the shipment, payment and financing of any agricultural product that can be issued or transferred.

Coffee meets the definition of an agricultural product, although coffee differs from cotton and peanuts, as it is imported and stored in commercial warehouses as a raw agricultural product and not supported or regulated under a USDA farm program. The coffee provider system is the Electronic Commodity Operations and Processing System (eCOPS)sm, a wholly owned subsidiary of the New York Board of Trade® (NYBOT).

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