Vietnam's domestic coffee slow as farmers hold beans

Vietnam's domestic coffee was slow as farmers held beans fearing crop failure even as stockpile averted exporters from buying further, traders said on Tuesday. Coffee prices in Daklak, Vietnam's largest growing province rose to 45,000-47,000 dong ($1.98-$2.07) per kg, from 44,500-45,000 dong last Thursday, as farmers pushed prices ahead of an expected shortage for the 2016/2017 crop year.
"Those exporters who do not have enough beans would have to accept this price, but actually most of them have already had quite a sufficient amount in store," said a Vietnamese trader. Discounts on 5-pct black and broken grade 2 robusta in Vietnam were stable on Tuesday at $65-$70 a tonne below the London's ICE May contract, which dropped 5.2 percent from a record high hit on February 1.
Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 140,300 tonnes (2.3 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in January, down 20.5 percent from a year earlier, while traders expect February shipments would reach 110,000-140,000 tonnes. The Southeast Asian nation is expected to produce 24.5 million bags of coffee during the 2016-2017 crop, which lasts from October last year to September this year, a recent Reuters poll showed.