Trade of robusta beans in Vietnam was undisrupted by last week's ethnic minority unrest in the country's coffee belt, with prices easing in the past week on ample supply of beans, traders said on Tuesday.
Last Saturday groups of hill tribes people massed outside the provincial government office of Daklak province and clashed with police and military. Protests also erupted in Gia Lai province.
Three years ago the tribes held massive demonstrations to demand religious and property rights.
On Tuesday, local prices in Daklak, the key-coffee growing province, eased to 9,270 dong (59 cents) per kg from 9,300 dong (59.3 cents) a week ago.
Traders in Daklak said export robusta grade two, five percent black and broken, were offered at $630-$640 a tonne FOB basis, down from $640-$650 last Tuesday.
Discount to the May contract was offered at $90 a tonne, traders said.
On Monday, Hanoi said authorities had stabilised the situation and the area was now under "under normal condition".
The trade ministry forecast on Monday coffee exports during the second quarter of this year would jump 30 percent year on year to 315,000 tonnes while revenues were expected to rise 20 percent to $140 million.
The ministry, in a report published on its Web site, www.mot.gov.vn, said it expected coffee prices to rise in the April-June period on the back of improved global demand for the bean and a possible contraction in supplies.
The government put March's export of the beans at 90,000 tonnes, up 73 percent from the same month last year, bringing the October-March shipment to 473,000 tonnes (7.88 million 60-kg bags), up 32.1 percent from a year earlier.
The coffee crop year runs from October to September, with one four-month harvest completed in January.
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