HANOI: Vietnam, the world’s biggest robusta producer, saw brisk coffee exports due to higher prices while trading in Indonesia was quiet on limited supply, traders said on Thursday. Robusta grade 2, 5 pct black and broken was quoted at discounts of $70-$90 a tonne to the ICE March contract, widening from $65-$70 a tonne a week earlier, in line with the rise in London prices. The ICE price jumped 2.6 percent to hit a record high of $2,218 a tonne on Wednesday. “The market is pretty bustling now as farmers sought to sell at high prices and more export deals are sealed,” said Le Duc Huy, deputy general director of Simexco, a leading exporter in Daklak, Vietnam’s largest growing province.
Farmers sold beans at 46,200 dong ($2.05) per kg on Thursday, much higher than the 33,000-34,000 dong during the same period last year. Traders expect the market to maintain this high momentum until Tet, or the Lunar New Year, the country’s biggest public holiday which will last from January 26 to February 1 this year. Vietnam is expected to have exported 1.79 million tonnes (29.83 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in 2016, up 33.7 percent from a year ago, the government said last month, while traders expect coffee exports in January could hit 180,000 tonnes. The coffee export market in Indonesia was subdued due to limited supply. Premiums of robusta grade 4, 80 defects were quoted at $15-$20, with few trades being concluded as inventory is depleting, traders in Lampung said.
