Coffee prices in Vietnam edged up this week in line with a gain in futures contracts but remain below growers' expectations, while foreign buying demand has yet to pick up, traders said. That has left a large gap between bids and offers, with few beans changing hands. ICE November robusta contract settled up $35, or 2.3 percent at $1,587 per tonne, after matching the prior session's near-two-year low at $1,544.
In Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, the bitter beans rose to 35,000-35,800 dong ($1.56-$1.59) per kg in top growing province of Daklak, from 34,800-35,400 dong at the weekend, following the gains in London. The 34,800 dong per kg price was the lowest since July 29. "Trading is stuck," a Vietnamese exporter based in Daklak said. "Farmers should release some stocks now in preparations for the next harvest," he said, adding that selling old-crop beans now will also help boost the export quality.
Based on the domestic prices, exporters were seeking to sell Vietnamese robusta beans grade 2, 5 percent black and broken at premiums of $75-$90 a tonne to the November contract, up from premiums of $60-$80 a tonne last week. That placed the beans at $1,662-$1,677 a tonne, on a free-on-board Saigon basis. But bids were at discounts of $20-$30 a tonne, leaving no deals sealed in recent days, traders said.
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