Coffee price crisis hits Vietnamese export value

HÀ NỘI – Việt Nam's coffee industry had suffered from falling export prices, according to the Việt Nam Coffee and Cacao Association.

Falling coffee export prices has hit Việt Nam's export value. Photo daibieunhandan

Export prices for the 2018-19 crop are at 10-year low.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Import and Export Department, in the first 11 months of this year, Việt Nam’s coffee exports reached 1.47 million tonnes, earning $2.5 billion, falling 14.6 per cent in volume and 22.2 per cent in value year on year.

The average export price of coffee in November was estimated at $1,725 per tonne, down 4.2 per cent compared to October and down 7.6 per cent compared to November 2018.

In the first 11 months this year, the average export price reached US$1,723 per tonne, down 8.9 per cent over the same period in 2018.

The falling prices have prompted farmers to switch to more valuable crops.

According to the association, this year the country had nearly 690,000 hectares of coffee with output of approximately 1.7 million tonnes, and was expecting a total export turnover of nearly $3 billion.

Besides the price crisis, Việt Nam's coffee industry also faces many other challenges including old trees.

In addition, droughts and floods had damaged key coffee growing regions in the Central Highlands, according to the association.

The association forecasts that national coffee output may fall by 15 per cent in the 2019-20 crop.

Đỗ Hà Nam, vice chairman of the Việt Nam Coffee and Cocoa Association, Việt Nam was the second largest coffee exporter in the world with strong growth in output. However, it had not improved much in terms of quality or value.

Ninety per cent Việt Nam’s exported coffee was raw materials and the export coffee price depended on the London and New York futures markets, Nam said.