8:49:24 AM | 20/10/2008
The global financial crisis causing drops in prices of many farm produce, including coffee, is hitting Vietnamese coffee industry, said Doan Trieu Nhan, senior consultant of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) worried.
The consultant said on the Vietnam Agriculture that coffee export prices dropped to only US$1,600 a ton currently, from US$2,520 a ton in February 2008, and US$2,000 a ton a month earlier.
Local coffee prices also followed the fall on the world market. In the central highlands province of Dak Lak, prices of coffee bean shrank from VND42,000 a kilogram early this year to VND26,000 a kilogram.
Nhan said local farmers lost VND14-16 million per ton of coffee compared to early 2008.
Export volume also decreased since August, by 25 per cent in Germany market, 48 per cent in the U.S., and nearly 22 per cent in Italy, Nhan added.
He gave an estimated loss of US$1 billion that Vietnam may suffer from this year cased by the price falls of coffee in the case that the country’s total output reaches 1.2 million tons
In the first nine months of this year, Vietnam exported 767,000 tons of coffee worth US$1.619 billion, down 21.6 per cent on year in volume but up 9.6 per cent in value, according to the General Statistics Office. (Vietnam Agriculture)
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