Coffee sales in Vietnam slowed in the past week as stores were nearly empty and beans from the new harvest will not arrive until October, traders said on Tuesday. This week prices fell more than 7 percent from last week to around 25,100 dong ($1.55) per kg in the top coffee-growing province of Daklak following last week's declines in London robusta futures, traders there said.
Vietnamese robusta grade 2 with 5 percent black and broken beans, also fell to about $1,623-$1,625 a tonne on Tuesday, free-on-board Saigon Port, from $1,725 a week ago and a $1,745 to $1,760 range in late July.
"There are almost no beans left so we are not so worried about the fall in prices now but in a month and half when the harvest begins that will be a very important factor," a trader in Buon Ma Thou, the capital of Daklak said.
The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association forecast last week that the new harvest would produce 15 million 60-kg bags, 3.2 percent down from the previous crop. It said the next harvest would start in October as usual. "The rains have been of a big help to water the trees so far, they will only become a threat in a month when they could destroy ripe cherries," another trader in Daklak said.
State forecasters have said Vietnam could be struck by up to 10 storms during this year's August to October storm season. So far only two storms have arrived.
The Central Highlands coffee belt often escapes direct storm hits but heavy rains at the start of a coffee harvest could disrupt the drying process, increasing defects such as higher-than-normal moisture and black beans.