Antwerp warehouse Wilmarsdonk said it is loading more than 200 tons of coffee a day, in a statement issued following a court ruling related to delivery delays last week.

A Belgian trade court ordered the speedy delivery of coffee by Wilmarsdonk to Belgium-based trader Sucre Export S.A..

Coffee trade houses and roasters in Europe are fuming over delays of several months in getting supplies out of warehouses in Antwerp and say the Liffe exchange is failing to meet its mandate as supplier of last resort.

Court documents showed the warehouse was ordered to initially deliver 20,000 60-kg bags of coffee within six working days of the court decision, followed by an additional 12,000 bags by December 14 and a final 18,000 bags by January 12 2012.

Wilmarsdonk said that 16,000 bags or 960 tonnes of the initial delivery had already been loaded prior to the date of the court order.

"The court order for the full quantity of 3,000 metric tonnes (50,000 bags) is expected to be completed by 12th January 2012; representing less than 100 metric tonnes a day and taking into account our loading capacity per day," Wilmarsdonk said in a statement.

"We confirm we have been trying our best to load as much as we can and once again confirm that we are doing substantially more than 200 metric tonnes a day."

Warehouses can move out around 200 tons of coffee per day, at times a tiny fraction of stocks which can run into tens of thousands of tons, industry sources said. (Reuters)