Coffee prices in Vietnam edged up on Tuesday due to thin stocks and a rise in the global market, and traders said any sharp gain will be capped as the ongoing spate of low rains would not hurt the 2010/11 crop. In the top coffee-growing province of Daklak, robusta beans were for sale at between 29,900 dong and 30,100 dong ($1.57-$1.58) per kg, up from 29,400-30,000 dong last Tuesday.
Prices stood at 29,700-29,800 dong per kg in the neighbouring provinces of Lam Dong, Dak Nong and Gia Lai. Prices in Vietnam increased after a rise in November robusta coffee in London, which rose $2 to close at $1,770 a tonne on Monday. The end of the current crop in Vietnam was approaching with few beans still in the hands of farmers and most of the remaining stock in exporters' warehouses, said a trader at a domestic firm in Buon Ma Thuot, the capital city of Daklak.
Foreign buyers were seeking beans at a discount of $130-$140 a tonne for robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken, while exporters set the discount at $100-$110, a trader at a foreign-invested export company said. The prices therefore ranged from $1,630-1,670 a tonne, free-on-board, from last week's $1,610-$1,630 a tonne.