Coffee exports rise, but value stagnates
The low growth in coffee’s export value was attributed to the significant decline in coffee’s export prices during the reviewed period.
In September, the average export price of Vietnam’s coffee was estimated at US$1,731 per tonne, down 6% against the previous month and down 25.8% compared with the same period last year. In the first nine months of 2018, the average export price was US$1,897 per tonne, a year-on-year decrease of 16.4%.
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After a period of sharp decline, over the past two weeks the domestic coffee prices have been rising again due to the increasing prices on the world coffee market. However, the increase rate was still very low.
On October 9, 2018, the prices of coffee in the Central Highlands were VND36,100 per kilo at the highest and VND35,300 at the lowest.
Do Ha Nam, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, said coffee producers faced many difficulties such as the supply surplus, the timing of the harvest season and technical problems.
However, coffee prices have signaled a rise, though not much, it is a positive signal for Vietnamese coffee. The world coffee prices are tending to recover, contributing to the increase in coffee prices in the country.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), domestic coffee prices rose again in late September and early October after dropping in the first 20 days of the month. However, prices remained lower than in August.
In the first eight months of this year, Germany and the US continue to be the two largest coffee consuming markets of Vietnam, accounting of 12.6% and 9.8% of market share, respectively. The markets with strong increasing export value were Indonesia (eight times higher), Russia (up 66.6%) and the Philippines (up 46.6%). In September, the domestic coffee market fluctuated much in line with the world market trends.
According to the International Trade Centre (ITC), Russian coffee imports in the first six months of 2018 reached 95,555 tonnes worth US$294.54 million, down 0.2% in volume and nine percent in value against the first six months of 2017.
The MoIT said that in the first half of this year, Vietnam was the biggest importer of coffee into Russia with a 59.3% increase in imports over the same period of 2017. The market share of Vietnamese coffee in Russia increased from 32.8% in the first half of 2017 to 49.9%.
