Coffee export volume up, value falls

Coffee export volumes increased in the first seven months of this year but the total value declined, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has said.

The country exported 802,000 tonnes of coffee in the period, earning US$1.19 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.1 per cent in volume but a year-on-year decline of 15.7 per cent in value.

The decline in value was mainly due to falling world prices. Viet Nam’s export contract prices were down by $200 to $1,251-1,281 per tonne in July.

In the same month world prices dropped 13 per cent to $1,300 per tonne for Robusta coffee on the London market and 19 per cent to US$1.15 a pound for Arabica coffee on the New York market.

However, forecasters have tipped world prices to increase at the end of the 2008-09 coffee crop when supply would decline while consumption would remain stable.

Vietnamese coffee exporters were advised to store their coffee and delay signing export contracts until the price improved.

Luong Van Tu, chairman of the Viet Nam Coffee and Cacao Association, said exporters should not sign contracts with a delivery date too far into the future.

Exporters often signed export contracts six to seven months before delivery, by which time the market often changed, he said. Three months was the maximum.

Also, Tu said, exporters should co-operate to fix the volume of coffee exported each month so as not to flood the market and drive prices down

Tags: Vietnam Coffee, vietnam coffee exports