Vietnam's coffee market saw thin trading on Thursday as farmers held back beans expecting higher prices, while Indonesia saw brisk activity on solid buying demand despite lower export prices. Farmers in Vietnam, the world's biggest robusta producer, have been demanding higher prices, but traders who are not in desperate need of beans, are unwilling to surrender, especially amid falling global coffee prices.
ICE November robusta coffee futures fell 0.25 percent from Wednesday to $1,577 a tonne at 1027 GMT, while premiums for Vietnamese robusta beans grade 2, 5 percent black and broken tracking London futures stood unchanged from last week, at $60-$80 a tonne. "Farmers still have much stock but they do not want to sell," said Van Thanh Huy, chairman of Inexim Daklak Co.
Coffee growers are offered 35,000-36,200 dong ($1.56-$1.61) per kg, much lower than the 40,000-dong they expect, Huy said, adding robusta output of the next crop may be lower as price-sensitive farmers now care less about fertilisation. Vietnam exported 92,600 tonnes (1.54 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in August, 13.6 percent lower than the previous month, Vietnam Customs said on Wednesday, below market expectations. Exporters in Indonesia have also seen lower export prices, but trading is still active thanks to strong buying demand from local factories and exporters in coffee growing areas closer to the end of the 70-percent-complete harvest season.
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