Asia coffee: Discounts narrow in Indonesia; Vietnam quiet on thin supply

HANOI, June 8 - Indonesian coffee discounts tightened in robust trade this week, while the Vietnam beans market was quiet due to thin supply and weak demand, traders said on Thursday.

Indonesia's robusta grade 4, 80 defects were traded at a $30 discount per tonne to the July contract, traders in Lampung said, compared with a $40 discount last week.

"Many exporters are scrambling to get coffee," said a trader in Lampung.

In Vietnam, the world's top robusta producers, the 5 percent black and broken grade 2 robusta was quoted at $20-$30 premium per tonne to London's ICE September contract , compared with a $20 premium a week earlier.

Vietnamese farmers quoted local prices at 44,000-45,000 dong ($1.94-$1.98) per kg, compared with 44,000-44,200 dong a week ago, which traders said made export quotes higher than import offers.

Vietnam customs said on Thursday the country exported 122,000 tonnes (2.03 million 60-kg bags) of coffee in May, down 9.4 percent from a month earlier, and slightly above the government estimate of 120,000 tonnes.

Traders expected Vietnam's coffee exports to reach 90,000-120,000 tonnes in June while the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast Vietnam's 2017/2018 harvest to increase 10 percent annually to 28.6 million bags of coffee, or 1.72 million tonnes, due to favourable weather in the first half of the year. ($1 = 22,688 dong)