Vietnamese coffee exports are expected to jump in December as supplies rise towards the end of harvest, attracting more buyers from Indonesia where stocks have dwindled, traders said on Thursday. The harvest will end in the next few weeks in the Central Highland's coffee belt, which turns out 80 percent of output in the world's largest robusta producing nation, traders in Vietnam said.
Their estimate is that the harvest was 70 percent complete in some areas in Daklak, the top growing province, while between 30-50 percent has been picked in other central highland provinces. Traders forecast December exports to rise to 150,000 tonnes, from 120,000 tonnes estimated by the government for November.
"Part of the export volume this month will still be old-crop beans," a trader at a foreign firm in Ho Chi Minh City said. Vietnamese exporters were now slow in seeking deals after they had sold actively in the first half of November at high prices, another trader said.
In early November, domestic prices hit their highest since late March 2013, tracking gains on the London robusta futures market. On Wednesday ICE January robusta settled down 0.98 percent at $2,026 per tonne, weighed partly by a stronger dollar. Discounts of Vietnamese robusta grade 2 shrank to $40-$60 a tonne to ICE March contract. Last Thursday, the beans were offered at $60-$65 a tonne below the January contract.
Beans grade 1 screen 16, similar to the Sumatran coffee, were quoted in a range from par with London futures to a premium of $10 a tonne. Last week, the beans stood at discounts of $10-$15 a tonne to the January contract. In Indonesia, premiums of robusta grade 4, 80 defects rose to $50-$60 a tonne to the January contract on thinning stocks, while buyers were seen switching to robusta in Vietnam where the harvest was under way, traders in Bandar Lampung said.