San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s Connecticut-based trading unit reportedly has entered the global coffee commodity market at a time post-Enron when energy traders are being subjected to increased scrutiny. Sempra would not deny or confirm that they are doing some coffee trading, but through a corporate spokesperson in San Diego Monday emphasized that the vast majority of the company’s trades are in natural gas, electricity or metals.

Sempra added metals to its trading portfolio earlier in the year with the purchase of some of Enron’s and UK firms’ trading operations in that area.

Reuters carried a wire report over the weekend that the Stamford, CT-based Sempra Energy Trading had expanded into coffee trading on a “sizable long position” basis at a time when coffee prices remain below their cost of production and the market has been in a “prolonged bear” mode.

“We have a policy of not commenting on our individual trading positions,” said Sempra’s Doug Kline. “Nearly all of our business is in energy and metals trading, but from time to time we may also have business in other commodities, and these other commodities comprise a small portion of our overall trading activities. That is really all I can offer on this subject.”

Coffee is the second most traded commodity after oil, according to Reuters , which attributed to a source at one commission house the confirmation that Sempra was holding a sizable position in coffee futures. Global production is reportedly far outdistancing the consumption of coffee right now.

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