Coffee prices in Vietnam, the largest producer of the robusta variety used in instant drinks and espresso, fell to the lowest level in more than two weeks on stockpile sales with the start of the new season.
Vietnamese coffee slid to 41,200 dong ($1.98) a kilogram (2.2 pounds) yesterday, the lowest price since Sept. 20, data from the Dak Lak Trade & Tourism Center showed. The price rose to 41,300 dong today. Vietnam’s 2012-13 coffee season started this month and output is forecast to fall 1 million bags to 26 million bags, according to Volcafe, the coffee unit of commodities trader ED&F Man Holdings Ltd.
“Farmers and collectors want to clear their stock for the new crop coming in,” Nguyen Chi Cuong, chief executive officer at trading company NC Group Ltd., which has an office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, said by e-mail today.
Beans from the new crop have started arriving from farms mixed with coffee from the 2011-12 season, Cuong said in a separate report e-mailed today. The bulk of the crop will be gathered next month, he said.
NC Group was established in 2004 and trades natural rubber and coffee. The company sells 80,000 to 150,000 bags of coffee a year.
Robusta coffee for November delivery was up 0.1 percent to $2,069 a metric ton by 11:09 a.m. on the NYSE Liffe exchange in London.
Source: bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-10/vietnam-coffee-price-fell-to-2-week-low-as-season-started.html
