Supply of Vietnamese coffee is expected to rise in coming weeks as the harvest accelerates to its end in December, while not much fresh coffee has been made available for export, traders said on Tuesday. The harvest in the world's largest robusta producing nation has been going well in recent weeks after delays due to rain in late October and early November.
"There is still not much coffee around, so we don't see many offers yet," a trader at a foreign firm in Ho Chi Minh City said. But in the Central Highlands coffee belt around half of the 2016/2017 crop has been picked, while in some areas the process is 70 percent complete, a Vietnamese dealer said from Daklak, the country's top growing province.
Farmers have been making the most of sunny weather to dry beans. It takes up to 10 days to dry, pack and deliver beans from the Central Highlands to Ho Chi Minh City for loading. "Given the current pace, the harvest will finish by December 15," the dealer said, adding that a smaller crop this year meant the harvest could end earlier than usual.
Normally harvesting ends in late December or in January. Estimates of Vietnam's 2016/2017 production vary. Output could drop around 20 percent, Chairman Luong Van Tu of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) was quoted by the Vietnam Economic Times on Tuesday as saying, reiterating a Vicofa forecast of a 10-20 percent loss.
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