Vietnam's coffee exports more than doubled in November from the previous month, taking shipments so far this year to 1.1 million tonnes, up 4.4 percent from the year-ago period, keeping prices under pressure. But traders said on Tuesday that part of the November volume of 70,700 tonnes shown in the customs data, which is higher than a government forecast of 50,000 tonnes, will leave the ports this month along with fresh beans from the new crop to meet steady buying demand.
"Exporters are mostly seeking to sell on par with March prices," he said, but added that some foreign buyers in short positions might have bought Vietnamese robusta at premiums of $5 to $10 a tonne to London's March contract. Exporters also sought to sell at premiums of $20-$30 tonne to the March contract, another trader said.
"There is a strong demand to buy Vietnamese beans but supplies are coming in slowly," he said. Last week, Vietnamese beans were offered at discounts of $20 a tonne to the March contract. The contract fell $39 to close at $1,923 a tonne on Monday in London, pushing down robusta beans on Vietnam's domestic markets to 39.0-39.4 million dong ($1,857-$1,876) a tonne on Tuesday from 39.7-40.0 million dong the previous day.
"Prices eased in London, so exporters lessened their quotations and it was also more difficult to buy from farmers today," the trader at a European firm in Ho Chi Minh City said. Slow sales from top robusta producer Vietnam are likely to keep differentials steady this week, while worries about poor-quality beans from Indonesia have done little to arrest declines in global prices, dealers said on Monday.
The prices quoted by exporters placed Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken at $1,923 to $1,953 a tonne, free-on-board basis, down from $2,000-$2,020 a tonne last week. Buyers bid a discount of $30 a tonne, widening from $20 last week, as supplies are edging up along with the harvest peak.
Up to 60 percent of the current crop has been harvested in the key growing provinces of Daklak and Gia Lai, the second trader said. The harvest is likely to end in January. Quality of Vietnamese coffee could remain inconsistent, with good beans seen coming from main producing areas, but fears of coffee theft also prompted farmers to pick up both ripe and green cherries in Lam Dong province.
Lam Dong farmers were seen drying cherries on roadsides, many of which were still green, a visitor to the Central Highlands coffee belt told Reuters. Traders said these early harvested cherries could worsen the quality of exportable beans. Daklak is Vietnam's largest coffee growing province, followed by Lam Dong, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kontum.
The revised shipments in November are in line with market expectations of between 50,000 and 75,000 tonnes. Vietnam exported 32,000 tonnes of coffee, or around 533,000 bags in October. November's shipments raised the amount of coffee exported since January to 18.33 million 60-kg bags, Vietnam Customs said in a monthly report. Part of the 70,700 tonnes are to be loaded this month for shipments as customs data are based on the volume of beans before they enter bonded warehouses, not on the actual number of coffee that leaves the ports, traders said.