Vietnam, the world's top robusta exporter, estimated its 2003/2004 coffee exports rose 41.4 percent to a record 953,000 tonnes (15.9 million 60-kg bags).
The figure is the highest ever reported by the government since the mid-1990s when Vietnam emerged as the world's largest producer and exporter of the robusta variety, widely used for making instant coffee.
The latest shipment surpassed a previous record in the 2000/2001 crop year when Vietnam reported an export of 893,000 tonnes, against the shipment of around 1 million tonnes estimated by traders for the same crop year.
Its coffee crop year runs between October and September. The latest report by the government's General Statistics Office revised up the August coffee export at 63,000 tonnes, from 45,000 tonnes previously estimated.
It put shipment last month at 40,000 tonnes, bringing the country's export in the 9-month period of the 2004 calendar year to 751,000 tonnes of beans, up 49.4 percent year on year.
In July a Reuters survey of traders at five foreign companies showed the 2003/2004 crop produced an average 827,500 tonnes, based on estimates of between 720,000 tonnes and 900,000 tonnes.
They said the stock carried over from the previous crop was more than 100,000 tonnes. Local consumption has been stable in recent years at 40,000 tonnes to 50,000 tonnes.
Harvest of the 2004/2005 crop is expected to start in November, two weeks later than normal following a delay in watering the trees, so fresh beans would be available for sale from late that month, traders have said.
The four-month harvest normally ends in January.
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