Discounts for Vietnamese robusta beans were steady this week as exporters rushed to ship them before the Lunar New Year festival, while Indonesian sellers were reluctant to offer any due to tight supplies, dealers said on Thursday.
Farmers in Vietnam have finished harvesting in most of the Central Highlands coffee belt by last month end, half a month earlier than usual to save labour costs and on fears of theft because of higher prices. Tet, or the Lunar New Year festival, is in early February this year.
Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken, was traded at discounts of $160-$170 to the London March contract, at $1,835-$1,845 a tonne, on a free-on-board basis, the Singapore dealer. Traders estimated this month's loading at 110,000 to 140,000 tonnes, similar to last month, while prices have jumped 7.7 percent in the past month to 37.6-37.8 million dong ($1,928-1,939) a tonne, the highest since July 3, 2008.
The loading estimate, equivalent to 1.83-2.33 million bags, is the first indication of the size of supply from the world's second-largest coffee producer. In Indonesia, exporters were not keen to offer beans because of supply uncertainty as the main harvest will not start until March/April, while robusta sales from Vietnam have widened discounts for the country's robusta beans.
Indonesian export-grade 4, 80 defect beans, were traded at discounts of $25-$50 a tonne under the London March contract, at $1,955-$1,980 a tonne, on a FOB basis, dealers said, compared to discounts of $20 last week. Exports of robusta coffee from the main growing area of Sumatra island fell 28 percent to 247,750.34 tonnes in 2010 from a year ago as prolonged rains cut output. There was an offer for the export grade robusta at a discount of $75 under London but it was for a small amount of uncommitted cargoes, said the Lampung dealer.
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