Vietnam's 16 largest coffee exporters will buy 432,000 tonnes, or 7.2 million 60-kg bags, of the bean for stockpiles to prevent prices from falling, a state-run newspaper said on Friday. The exporters will buy the beans from next month to January 2012 and plan to keep them between six to nine months, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, quoting sources from Vietnam's leading coffee exporters' club.
Coffee prices are expected to ease as supplies from the harvest in the Central Highlands coffee belt rise from late October. The harvest will peak in November. The scheduled stockpiling volume far exceeded a plan of between 200,000 and 300,000 tonnes which the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) had urged members to implement. Vietnam's 2011/2012 coffee crop may have an output of 1.1 million tonnes, equivalent to the last crop, the newspaper quoted the Vicofa as saying. Agribank, Vietnam's largest lender, said it would lend the coffee sector nearly 5 trillion dong ($240 million), which falls short of industry demand for around 12 trillion dong for the stockpiling plan.