With the world’s soaring coffee prices, Vietnamese firms will have to pay higher for their possible coffee import, said an official from the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa).
The official attributed the situation to the fact that domestic enterprises have exported all coffee products after signing a lot of contracts when the harvest ended despite warning made by the Vicofa chairman, Van Thanh Huy, at the end of last year.
The chairman advised its member companies not to export coffee in large quantities and not to sign contracts with the delivery time too far from the contract signing time, in order to avoid possible risks due to price fluctuations.
Huy also anticipated that the coffee output would decrease this year while the demand would be increasingly higher.
Vietnamese coffee exporters are thus likely to earn more if they sell their products at the moment when the prices are on the rise, the official said.
Despite being the largest Robusta grower with total area of 500,000 ha and an annual yield of 750,000-800,000 tons, most of Vietnamese coffee has been exported as low-profit raw material.
According to Vicofa, in order to take full advantage of being the leading Robusta exporter, a lot of things still need to be done, including developing the material area, expanding trade and the drawing up of a market strategy.
Vicofa said that it was very necessary to have coffee in reserve. Brazil, for example, the leading coffee producer, buys coffee for reserve every year to sell when the price is high.