Asian coffee: Vietnam's offers at wider premiums; Indonesia's March exports jump

Vietnamese coffee was offered at wider premiums to London futures this week as hoarding by speculators curbed the amount of beans available for exports from the world's top robusta producer, traders said on Thursday. Robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken were quoted at premiums of $60-$70 a tonne to ICE July contract, from premiums of $50-$60 a tonne quoted last Thursday.
Vietnamese beans grade 1, screen 16, equivalent to Sumatran beans, were offered at premiums of $130 a tonne to the July contract, up from premiums of $110-120 a tonne a week ago.
"Buyers are not bidding as their accepted prices are far below offers," a trader at a foreign firm in Ho Chi Minh City said, adding that exporters have been facing difficulty in buying beans on domestic markets. A drop in local prices in February prompted speculators to build stocks in the hope that prices would rise soon, making it difficult for exporters to get beans, another trader said.
But Vietnam coffee prices lost another 5.4 percent in March versus the previous month, while robusta futures fell around 8 percent over the period, Reuters data shows. As hoarding continues, coffee deliveries from Vietnam could come under pressure and face delays this month.
"The danger with stop-loss is there as buyers have seen exporters asking to switch deliveries to March, then to May, so they will not agree with any further delays," said independent analyst Nguyen Quang Binh. In Indonesia, March coffee exports from the main growing area in Sumatra rose 21 percent from a year ago to 14,000 tonnes, based on government data.
Fresh cherry arrival from the country's early harvest has been steady, but output this year is projected to fall to 650,000-700,000 tonnes from 711,500 tonnes in 2014, traders said.
Vietnam and Indonesia account for a quarter of the world's coffee exports.
Sumatran robusta grade 4, 80 defects eased to $1,830-$1,850 a tonne, FOB Lampung, from $1,880-$1,900 last Thursday, but the market was still inactive, traders said.