HANOI: Coffee trading activities in Vietnam remained tepid at the end of the crop season due to a shortage of beans, while Indonesian September premium edged down slightly, traders said on Thursday.

Farmers in the central highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing area, sold beans at 64,800 dong to 65,600 dong ($2.74 to $2.78) per kilogramme, slightly wider from last week’s 64,800 dong to 65,000 dong range.

September robusta coffee settled up $72, at $2,604, as of Wednesday’s close, the highest level in the past ten days, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. “The current price range of 64,000-66,000 dong per kg has fully reflected the shortage of beans this crop season. Domestic prices in the near future will mostly move around this range,” said a trader based in the coffee belt.

“Domestic roasters are complaining that the prices are too high for them. Almost no deals were struck in the past months.” Another trader said at the moment even foreign exporters were holding very few to no beans while domestic ones had run out of beans for months.

“Coffee exports until the end of this crop season (October) are forecasted to fall sharply due to empty inventories,” the second trader said. Traders in Vietnam offered 5% black and broken-grade 2 robusta at a range of $140 to $172 premium per metric ton to the September contract.

Sumatra Robusta coffee bean was offered at $530 premium for September contract this week, down from $550 last week, “due to the increase in terminal price”, a trader said. Another trader said the price for August contract was offered at $560 premium, the same as last week.