Some international coffee organisations have forecast an undersupply in the 20062007 crop and the next. Phan Van Pho, an specialist of Vicofa, said local coffee prices had also rose almost 50% from late by 2006 to 28,600-28,700 dong a kilogram in the Central Highlands, the country's key coffee growing area.
Coffee farms and sales agents in the Central Highlands hesitate to sell beans in anticipation of higher prices, leading to an undersupply for exporters.
Vietnam's robusta beans make up a majority of the world's market, so any undersupply will cause prices to soar worldwide, Pho said, adding the volume of beans stored by sales agents and farms was less than 100,000 tonnes, so world prices were seen continuing to grow.
In the first five months this year, Vietnamese exporters shipped 776,000 tonnes of coffee worth US$1.1 billion, up 75% in volume and double in value year-on-year. Coffee overtook rice and rubber to become the leading farm export earner in the period