Vietnamese coffee exporters are hunting for beans to meet loading commitments as a small number of farmers and buying agents hold onto stocks while prices eased nearly 2 percent in the past week, traders said on Tuesday.
Scant supplies available on domestic markets raised the risk of more coffee export delays from Vietnam, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil. The supply picture is expected to remain tight until Vietnam starts its next harvest in November.
Traders said delays of coffee deliveries from local suppliers plus shipment cancellations, or washouts, may have risen already above the 40,000 tonnes as of early last week.
There were no fresh estimates for this week and Vietnam has no official trade or shipping body to calculate the size of delays or defaults for coffee deliveries. "It is now the hunt for coffee, not 'the purchase' as usual anymore," said a trader in Lam Dong, Vietnam's second-biggest growing province.
Many cash-strapped farmers had sold all their coffee after the earlier harvest, while farmers with better financing and buying agents remain reluctant to sell, said a Vietnamese industry expert in Daklak, the country's top growing province.
"They are holding less than 20 percent of what they produced, but even so, the number of these stakeholders is very small," he said from Buon Ma Thuot, Daklak's capital.
The Central Highlands, comprising five provinces which also include Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kontum, produces 80 percent of Vietnam's total coffee.
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