Vietnam said on Tuesday it expected to export 557,000 tonnes (9.3 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in the October-April period, the first seven months of the crop year ending in September, up 3.9 percent from a year.
The export estimate represents nearly 70 percent of the 800,000 tonnes available for this crop year, based on various estimates of output plus stocks carried over from last year and domestic consumption.
The coffee crop year in the world's top robusta producer runs between October and September. The four-month harvest ended in January. A report of the General Statistics Office revised upwards March coffee exports to 108,000 tonnes from 100,000 tonnes previously estimated, most of them robusta beans used mainly for making instant coffee.
Vietnam would export 90,000 tonnes of coffee this month, bringing the shipment in the first four months of the year to 356,000 tonnes, down 7.8 percent from a year, according to Reuters calculations.
The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association has forecast exports would fall 22 percent to 650,000-700,000 tonnes in the crop year ending this September.
Vietnam exported 834,000 tonnes of coffee in the October 2004-September 2005 season. Given the latest export estimate of 557,000 tonnes, Vietnam still has 240,000 tonnes left, taking into account traders' estimated output of 720,000 tonnes plus 130,000 tonnes carried over from the previous crop and domestic use of 50,000 tonnes.
There were no estimates on how much of the leftover beans have been sold. The Trade Ministry projected Vietnam's coffee exports in calendar 2006 at 920,000 tonnes, 4 percent up from 2005.
It aims to achieve a stable export volume of 900,000 tonnes a year by 2010.
Growers in the Central Highlands coffee belt who produce 80 percent of Vietnam's output said the harvest in October would be a bumper one, given good water supply and the yield rise in the tree's growth cycle after a loss this season.
Vietnam has yet to give any estimates of its next crop.
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