Coffee Price Plummets

The price of domestic raw coffee has been falling sharply since the middle of this August. Unsorted coffee stood at VND14,500 per kilogram on September 10 in Dak Lak province, while at the same time first and second-grade coffee was up VND200-300 per kilogram, the lowest cost in the past nine months after it peaked at VND21,000 per kilogram at times.

 

The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (VICOFA) says in the context that supply is diminishing, but the new harvest is not yet to come, the dropping price of coffee in Vietnam is largely because speculation funds worldwide are increasing sales causing the price to fall. Reuters said the price of Robusta coffee agreed on September 11 at the Tokyo Exchange and to be delivered within this September reduced JPY210 per 100 kilograms against the previous day, to JPY10,280 per kilogram at the closing hour.

 

According to VICOFA, Vietnam forwarded abroad almost 600,000 tonnes of coffee for an average of US$689.7 per tonne in the first eight months of the 2004-2005 harvest, up 4.3 percent in revenue against the same time of the previous harvest (because the average price climbed 6.2 percent), but down 1.8 percent in production.