HANOI: Asian markets saw limited coffee trading this week as lower global prices discouraged growers in top robusta producer Vietnam from selling and supplies in Indonesia remained limited, traders said on Thursday.
Thin demand from roasters has also curbed the activities of trading firms in Vietnam, where the 2014/2015 harvest has ended. Rival robusta producer Indonesia will step up its harvesting in March. The two produce 25 percent of global output.
March robusta coffee eased $5 to $1,979 a tonne as of 0909 GMT after finished down 0.2 percent on Wednesday, following more forecasts of rain over Brazil's coffee belt.
Benchmark ICE robusta is forecast to rise to $2,115 a tonne by the end of 2015, up nearly 7 percent from Wednesday's close, according to a Reuters poll on Wednesday.
"There's been some selling by Vietnamese exporters but only those who really need coffee are buying now," a Vietnamese trader at a European firm in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Another trader said lower prices had prompted Vietnamese growers to hold on to their stocks.
Vietnam's robusta beans grade 2, 5 percent black and broken were offered at discounts of $55-$60 a tonne to ICE May contract, cheaper than discounts of $40-$50 a week ago.
Higher-quality grade 1, screen 16 beans, equivalent to Sumatran beans, were quoted at premiums of $5 to $25 a tonne to the May contract.
Traders said exporters had slowed buying on domestic markets due to high stocks while many domestic speculators were hoarding beans, thus slowing exports.
Vietnam was expected to produce 27.2 million bags in 2014/2015, Wednesday's poll of 13 traders and analysts showed, slightly below the consensus of 27.5 million in the previous poll in July.
In Indonesia, growers have been harvesting a minor crop, known as the fly crop, but more beans will be available from March when the main harvest starts, traders said.
Quotations for Sumatran robusta grade 4, 80 defects rose to $1,960-$1,980 a tonne, free-on-board Lampung, from $1,930-$1,970 a tonne last Thursday.
The beans were also offered at par to a discount of $20 a tonne to the May contract for loading between May and July.
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