Vietnam to Keep Coffee Cultivation Acreage
Vietnam, the world’s second biggest coffee grower, will keep its coffee cultivation area at 500,000 hectares in the coming years despite falling prices, the Vietnam Trade Information Center said, citing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Export price of Vietnamese coffee is now averaging at VND24,700/kilogram (US$1.45), down 1.2 per cent from early this year, and nearly 30 per cent against the same period of last year.
Vietnam is expected to reap one million tons of coffee, or 16.67 million bags of 60 kilograms, in this 2009/2010 crop, up 4.2 per cent on year.
Vietnam is estimated to have exported 419,000 tons of coffee in the first quarter of 2009, raking in US$634 million, up 21.4 per cent on year in volume but down 7.1 per cent in value.
At the seminar on prospect for Vietnam farm produce market 2009, Nestor Osorio, chief executive official of the World Coffee Organization said the world’s coffee output will be 13 million bags lower than consumption this year.
He said the world may need around 138 million bags while the output will be only 125 million bags, believing that the world coffee price will become stable in the coming years. (Youth, Vinanet, GSO March Edition)
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