HANOI/BANDAR LAMPUNG: Vietnam coffee prices rose slightly this week on growing demand for robusta beans as the new stock’s arrival was still a few months away in Indonesia and Vietnamese farmers were in no rush to sell their coffee beans, traders said on Thursday. Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing area, sold beans at 42,400 dong to 44,000 dong ($1.80-$1.87) per kilogramme, up from 41,900 dong to 43,700 dong last week. “Some Indonesia-based buyers are turning to Vietnam for beans while farmers here are selling but not in bulk,” said a trader based in the coffee belt.

“Both qualities and quantities of Vietnamese robusta beans this crop year are at good level so farmers can benefit from the recovery of global demand.”

May robusta futures on ICE settled down $18, at $2,057 per tonne as of Wednesday’s close. Vietnam’s coffee exports in January stood at 142,544 tonnes, down 27.7% from the month before, government customs data showed. Coffee export revenue for the same month reached $310 million, down 27% against December last year.