Vietnam, the world's top robusta coffee producer, said it coffee exports would fall 7.2 percent in the first half of the current crop year as growers stockpile beans to drive up prices in a prolonged drought. A government report on Friday said Vietnam would ship 428,000 tonnes, or 7.13 million 60-kg bags, of the commodity in the first half of the current crop year, down from 461,000 tonnes shipped in the October-March last crop year. Vietnam's coffee crop year runs from October through September with a four-month harvest that ended in January.
The bulk of its coffee exports is the robusta variety. The drought in Vietnam's Central Highlands coffee belt helped boost prices to a five-year high of $1,125 in London early this month.
In the local markets, a kilogram of coffee has risen 30 percent to around 14,000 dong ($0.89) this week in Daklak, the key growing province, from 10,800 dong a month ago.
A report of the government's General Statistics Office estimated coffee shipment this month at 85,000 tonnes, up 9 percent from the same month last year.
It revised up its estimate for bean exports by 29 percent last month to 97,000 tonnes, which would bring the accumulated sale in the first quarter this year to 278,000 tonnes, or 7.3 percent below the same quarter of 2004.
Traders and agriculture officials said the drought has prompted growers to hold back beans from the harvest that ended in January, limiting exporters' purchases and leading to many delivery delays this month.
While showers were reported in four out of the five central highland provinces earlier this week, residents said the key growing province of Daklak still suffered from extensive dryness.
State forecasters said that more scattered showers were expected in the region on Friday. However, the rainy season will not start there until early May.
Following are breakdowns of Vietnam's coffee exports (in tonnes) during the current crop year ending in September, compared with the previous crop year.
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