Firming coffee prices and better weather in the coming days following rain last week could help speed up Vietnam's harvest, traders said on Tuesday, even as discounts remained stable. Vietnam's Central Highlands coffee belt started early harvest last month, but the main cherry-picking period is expected to begin mid-November in the world's top robusta producer.
Rainfall last week delayed the harvesting process slightly and also affected the quality of beans, traders said. The rains however stopped on Sunday and sunny days expected ahead could help coffee cherries ripen quicker, traders in the region said. "If sunlight is around for the next 10 days, the harvest is going to be much quicker as coffee cherries ripen," said a trader in Buon Ma Thuot, the capital city of Daklak province.
As rainfall disrupted drying of the bean, the ratio of mouldy beans has risen in recent days, he said, adding sellers kept the bad beans so as not to affect export cargoes. "If prices remain as good as now, farmers will be happy and will quicken harvesting," another trader in Daklak said.
Robusta prices rose to 45,400 dong ($2,035) a tonne on Tuesday, remaining close to their highest since end-March 2013, in the central highlands province of Dak Nong, one of Vietnam's top growing provinces. Higher prices in Vietnam trailed gains on London's robusta futures market, where the January contract settled up 0.3 percent at $2,194 per tonne on Monday, after peaking at $2,199, the highest since October 2014.
Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken beans were traded at discounts of $55-$60 a tonne to ICE March contract for loading from January. Last week, the beans were quoted at discounts of $40-$60 a tonne to the ICE January contract. "Exporters have not sold much of new-crop beans before the harvest peak, while the stocks of old-crop beans are still high, so most of the coffee to be exported this month could still be from the previous season," the first Daklak trader said.