Vietnam coffee prices unchanged; Indonesian premium widens

Vietnam’s domestic coffee prices were unchanged on Thursday from a week earlier as trade has almost come to a halt ahead of a major harvest beginning next month.

Roasted coffee beans are seen at the coffee company of Simexco Dak Lak Limited in the town of Di An in Binh Duong province, Vietnam July 8, 2019. Photo: Reuters

Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing area, offered coffee at 35,000 dong ($1.51) per kg, flat to the previous week.

“Almost no one is trading now as both farmers and traders don’t have any more beans left for sale,” a trader based in the Central Highlands said.

Traders said Vietnam’s coffee exports in September will fall to less than 100,000 tonnes. Shipments in August fell 18.7% from July to 114,162 tonnes.

“The local market will remain quiet until the next harvest, which will officially begin next month and will peak from mid-November,” the Central Highlands trader said.

Traders said weather conditions in the Central Highlands are favourable for the coffee trees, but declined to give a forecast on the output of the 2019/20 harvest.

November robusta coffee rose $6, or 0.46%, to $1,319 per tonne on Wednesday.

Traders in Vietnam offered 5% black and broken grade 2 robusta at premiums of $180-$200 per tonne to the November contract on Thursday, compared with a $220 premium a week ago.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s grade 4 defect 80 robusta beans were offered at premiums of $190-$200 to the November contract, wider than $180 last week, a trader in the Sumatran province of Lampung said.

“The price rose this week, trailing recent coffee benchmark price increases in London,” the trader said.