Vietnam's new coffee crop year has begun with early harvesting in the Central Highlands, where crops largely escaped damage from a recent typhoon, and traders said prices could soften when the harvest peaks late next month. Vietnam, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil, is forecast to pick 19 million bags from this 2009/2010 season, down from 19.5 million 60-kg bags in the previous harvest, a Reuters poll in July showed.
Though downpours brought by typhoon Ketsana in late September caused some green cherries to drop, the output losses were minimal and the rains also did not affect harvesting, which peaks in six weeks, traders said on Tuesday. "With sunny days like in the past two days, cherries will ripen in a month and the harvest can peak from late November as usual," a dealer said by telephone from Gia Lai province while touring the Central Highlands for a production survey.
Vietnam's new coffee crop year begins this month and ends in September 2010. Last week regional traders outside Vietnam said rains could affect farmers' drying process, raising concern over quality. But traders in Daklak, Vietnam's top coffee-growing province, told Reuters on Tuesday that quality had not been affected so far and stocks held by farmers were enough for loading before supply begins to pick up next month.
"Farmers do not sell as quickly this year as in the previous season and exporters have also slowed sales as they do not see the benefit in selling too far ahead (of the harvest peak)," a trader in Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Daklak, said. Vietnamese fresh robusta beans were quoted at discounts of $100 to $115 a tonne to London January contract for loading in December, while discounts for deals with loading in November narrowed to $70 a tonne. Quotations with discount to London January stood at $100-$105 a tonne for loading in November and December last Tuesday.
The discounts meant free-on-board prices of $1,290 to $1,305 a tonne, down from $1,360-$1,370 a week ago. Robusta beans eased to 23,700-24,100 dong ($1.33-$1.35) per kg on Tuesday in Daklak, from 24,100-24,300 dong early last week. "When the harvest peaks next month, sales will pick up and prices could soften a bit," the trader in Daklak said.
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