HANOI: Vietnam, the world’s top producer of robusta coffee beans, will export an estimated 1.28 million tonnes (21 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in 2015, down 24.3 percent from last year, the government said.
The export volume in December alone is estimated at 130,000 tonnes, up 12.6 percent from a year ago, the General Statistics Office said in a monthly report, above market expectations.
Traders had forecast coffee exports this month at between 100,000 and 120,000 tonnes.
The government provides data on a calendar year basis, while Vietnam’s coffee crop year is from October to September.
The December shipments brought the country’s export volume in the first quarter of the 2015/2016 crop year to 315,100 tonnes, up 6.7 percent from the same period a year ago.
