The average price of Vietnam’s robusta coffee beans is expected to rise 10 per cent in 2006 because of shrinking output caused by dry weather in the country's coffee growing region, an industry official said October 31.
Serious droughts in the Central Highlands, where most of the country's coffee for export is grown, will reduce output significantly, Doan Trieu Nhan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Coffee Association, or Vicofa, said.
"The average price has risen more than 20 per cent on year this year from 2004 when our exportable volume fell more than 20 per cent. Therefore, it is forecast that prices will rise at least 10 per cent in 2006 as (our) export volume is expected to fall by more than 10 per cent," Nhan said on the sidelines of a conference held by the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council in Hanoi.
The council looks at Vietnam's development policies for the agriculture sector.
Vietnam's coffee crop year runs from October through September in the following year.
Vietnam is estimated to have exported 720,000 tons of coffee beans in the 2004-2005 crop year at an average price of US$800 a ton, down 19 per cent on year in volume but up 23.6 per cent in terms of price, Vicofa figures show.
The country, which is one of the world's largest exporters of robusta coffee, expects its export volume to fall 12.5 per cent on year to 630,000 tons in the 2005-06 crop year.
In the past ten months of this year, Vietnam reportedly shipped 734,000 tons of coffee abroad, raking in US$588 million, down 8.9 per cent in volume but up 10.2 in value against the same period last year.
vietpan.com
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