Vietnam’s coffee export market slowed on Tuesday as exporters sought to sell on par with London futures and buyers did not rush as their stocks were high, partly boosted by rising shipments so far this season, traders and the government said.
Farmers slowing sales, anticipating prices to rise on reports that the crop this year will fall from a record high in 2011/2012, would also keep trade quiet, traders said.
Vietnam, the world’s second-largest producer after Brazil, has picked more than half of its 2012/2013 crop, but falling global prices also prompted growers to hold back sales.
London’s January contract eased $5, or 0.3 percent, to settle at $1,854 a tonne on Monday after dipping to $1,836, the lowest level for the second month since Feb. 6.
Exporters were seeking to sell on par with London’s January for Vietnamese beans grade 2, 5 percent black and broken, while bids were static at $50 a tonne.
The January contract has now lost 15.5 percent since Vietnam’s 2012/2013 crop year began on Oct. 1, while robusta prices have dropped at a slightly slower pace of about 12 percent in the same period.
Prices in Daklak, the top growing province, eased to 37,400-38,000 dong ($1.79-$1.82) per kg on Tuesday, from 37,900-38,200 dong a week ago and 42,800 dong on Oct. 1.
«The domestic market prices are sky-high,» a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.
The crop year lasts from October to September of the following year.
«Coffee is plentiful in warehouses now, so not many are buying yet,» another trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Growers have been selling slowly so far this year because they assumed the crop could shrink from the record high output of 2011/2012, traders said.
The new crop could ease 9 percent from last year to 24.2 million bags, due to adverse weather, the U.S. Department of Agriculture attache in Vietnam has said.
SOARING COFFEE EXPORTS
Vietnam exported an estimated 110,000 tonnes, or 1.83 million bags, of coffee in November, an increase of 55.6 percent from a year earlier, and exceeding market expectations, a government report said on Tuesday.
Coffee exports in October and November would double to around 212,000 tonnes, or 3.53 million 60-kg bags, from 103,000 tonnes a year ago, the report said.
The rising exports could push down global prices as the harvest peak led to ample supplies, traders said.
Traders said old-crop beans would be nearly 150,000 tonnes, or 70 percent of the two-month shipment, suggesting the 2011/2012 crop produced 1.75 million tonnes, a record high.
Vietnam had exported 1.6 million tonnes of coffee between October 2011 and this September, up 23 percent from the previous season, government data show. ($1=20,840 dong)
Source: reuters.com/article/2012/11/27/markets-vietnam-coffee-idUSL4N09719A20121127
