Vietnamese coffee prices fall to seven-month low

Vietnamese coffee prices dropped on Tuesday to a seven-month low, tracking a global retreat as harvesting of an expected bumper crop began, although it has started slowly in some areas and supplies are not expected to pick up until next month.
Dealers said some arabica beans had arrived from the early harvest and robusta would pick up from November, provided the rainy season ends this month. A major harvest is coming in Vietnam, the world's top producer and exporter of robusta coffee and a minor arabica grower. Arabica output is expected to grow 25 percent this year. "The new crop year has started, but harvesting is slow," said a trader in Ho Chi Minh City, around 300 km (186 miles) south-west of the Central Highlands coffee belt.
The harvest could enter its usual peak from mid-November, a trader said from Lam Dong, Vietnam's second-biggest coffee growing province after Daklak. Robusta beans eased to between 43.2 million and 43.3 million dong ($2,077-$2,082) a tonne on Tuesday in the Central Highlands, the lowest since the week ending February 25, Reuters data showed.
New York arabica fell to the lowest since December 2010 as forecasts of rain in top grower Brazil, which is expected to trigger coffee flowering, added to downward pressure, dealers said. London's January robusta slid $51, or 2.5 percent, to close at $1,962 a tonne on Monday.
Vietnamese arabica cherries fell to 9 million dong a tonne on Tuesday from 12 million dong on Monday. Between 6.2-6.3 tonnes of fresh cherries make one tonne of dry beans. The country grows catimor, a variety of the aromatic arabica coffee. Prices fell before a large harvest, with output likely to rise 13.5 percent from the previous crop year to 21 million 60-kg bags, a Reuters poll in July found.