HANOI/BANDAR LAMPUNG: Coffee prices in Vietnam hovered near a four-year high this week due to a stronger US dollar and no stocks at the end of the crop season, traders said on Thursday. Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing area, sold coffee at 44,500-46,000 dong($1.90-$1.97) per kilogram, the highest for this crop year so far and since late-August 2017.

“A stronger dollar contributed to the rise, together with empty inventories,” said a trader based in Ho Chi Minh City. Traders in Vietnam offered 5% black and broken-grade 2 robusta at a discount of $20-$40 per tonne to the November contract.

According to a Reuters poll, Vietnam was forecast to have a crop of 30 million bags of 60 kg each in 2022/23, slightly below the prior season. “It’s still too soon to estimate the output,” said a trader based in the coffee belt.

“As fertiliser prices have been sky high over the past year, many farmers switched to other crops. Output might be lower this new season.”

London November robusta coffee settled up $3 at $2,023 per tonne on Wednesday. Coffee exports from Vietnam were estimated to have increased 18.4% in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier to 1.1 million tonnes, equal to 19 million 60-kg bags, according to the statistics office.

Meanwhile, exports of Indonesia’s Sumatra robusta coffee beans in June jumped 45.98% to 16,511.68 tonnes from a year earlier, official data showed.