Domestic coffee price rose in Vietnam on Tuesday, tracking London futures market gains, but trading remained slow due to thin stocks, traders said on Tuesday. Vietnam is in the period between crops and the next harvest of the world's top robusta producer will start from November. "The current stocks are thin and it is difficult for exporters to buy beans locally," an official at the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association said.
Robusta rose to 47.2-47.3 million dong ($2,293-$2,298) a tonne on Tuesday in Daklak, Vietnam's top growing province, from 45.9 million dong on Monday, but prices were still below a range of 47.8-48.1 million dong a week ago. Prices have risen nearly 60 percent from a year ago but are still 9 percent below the all-time high of 52 million dong a tonne on May 11.
"If prices rise back to the peak, it could help create selling pressure, so only at that time can we see much of the size of the current stock," a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. On Monday, London's robusta coffee futures rebounded, with September climbing $76, or 3.7 percent, to close at $2,150 a tonne, after dipping to $1,985 last week, its lowest since December 2010.
Indicative premiums of Vietnamese coffee to London's September stood at $150-$200 a tonne, but exporters have stopped making fresh quotations and focused on completing loading for existing deals, traders said. "There have been much delay and talk on dealing with the consequences of washouts, only that we do not know how much of coffee has been in trouble," a second trader in Ho Chi Minh City said. Buyers also faced washouts, or shipment cancellations, in Indonesia, Vietnam's robusta rival.
The premiums meant Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken stood at $2,300-$2,350 a tonne, free-on-board, down from $2,420-$2,430 last Tuesday. Earlier this month, traders said 40,000 tonnes had faced delays, while last week an exporter said the volume must have been higher.