Robust coffee prices in Vietnam extended recent gains this week on the back of dwindling domestic stocks, traders said on Tuesday. "It is very difficult to buy big volumes of beans now mainly because there is not much left and also partly because those who still have the beans wanted more money," a trader in Buon Ma Thou, the capital of top coffee-growing province of Daklak said.
A kilogram of robust rose to 26,600-27,000 dong ($1.66-$1.68) in Daklak on Tuesday, up from 26,500 dong ($1.65) a week ago and about 5 percent higher than the levels two weeks.
Export offer prices also firmed to a new high of around $1,690-$1,700, free on board, from $1,690 a tonne last on Tuesday. However, exporters said buyers were reluctant to sign new contracts due to the high prices.
"Many foreign buyers have said they wanted to wait to see if prices would fall as it was too expensive," another trader in Daklak said. Traders in Daklak estimated around 20 percent of Vietnam's last coffee crop was still left unsold in the country.
This week the government statistics office estimated Vietnam's coffee exports in the first eight months of the current crop year would jump 54.8 percent from a year ago to 16.67 million bags.
RISING EXPORTS It estimated coffee exports from October 2006 through May 2007 to reach one million tonnes while shipment this month alone would rise 23.6 percent from last May to 110,000 tonnes, or 1.83 million bags. The monthly estimate brought January to May's shipment from Vietnam, the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, to 12.93 million bags, or 74.7 percent above a year.
Export earnings of the item, the bulk of which is the robust variety, are estimated to soar 121.4 percent from the same period last year to $1.12 billion, the General Statistics Office said. The latest harvest that ended in January produced 19.4 million bags, or 1.16 million tonnes, according to a Reuters's poll that month, a rise of 43.7 percent from the January 2006 harvest.
But traders said the quantity of coffee available for sale was lower, given that roasters use up to 1 million bags annually to serve 85 million Vietnamese people and also export a small volume of coffee powder.
Raw robust beans make up the majority of Vietnam's coffee exports. Although rains have been steady in the Central Highlands coffee belt since the rainy season started this month, traders said the October 2007 to September 2008 crop would fall after two consecutive bumper harvests. The four-month harvest usually starts in late October.
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