Robusta coffee in Vietnam's domestic market rose on Tuesday to 46 million dong ($2,205) per tonne, a fresh all-time high in domestic currency terms, but exporters still found it hard to secure beans from growers, traders said.
Exporters offered to buy coffee at between 45.6 million dong and 46 million dong a tonne, up nearly 1 percent from 45.1-45.7 million dong a tonne early last week in the key growing province of Daklak, but transactions have been slow, traders said.
"Several businesses are seeking to buy beans, while farmers are not selling much, so the buyers may compete by raising their buying prices," a trader at a foreign company in Ho Chi Minh City said. He said buying prices in the Central Highlands could have been raised to above 46 million dong per tonne on Tuesday, as several exporters were in dire need to secure beans for loading.
Coffee prices in Vietnam, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil, closely track the London robusta futures market, where the May contract ended up $45 at $2,384 a tonne on Monday, supported by strength in the arabica market. Coffee stocks are falling in Vietnam given a faster shipping pace so far in the October 2010/September 2011 harvesting season while the volume of exportable beans may have fallen because of a higher ratio of small-sized beans, traders said.
Coffee exports between October last year and this February rose 5 percent from a year ago to 8.75 million bags, government statistics show . The shipment included stocks carried over from the 2009/2010 season. Excluding the stock, which was estimated by traders at around 130,000 tonnes, or 2.17 million bags, the export volume so far represents about 36 percent of the 18.43-million-bag crop estimated by the International Coffee Organisation.
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