Asia Coffee-Trade slows, Vietnam market may pick up next week

HANOI, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Coffee markets in Vietnam and Indonesia were quiet on thin supplies and weak demand from buyers, many of whom are on summer holidays, traders said on Thursday.

Vietnamese exporters quoted the 5 percent black and broken grade 2 robusta variety at a discount of $45-$50 to the ICE November contract LRCX7 , compared with $35 last week, but few trades were done on scarce supply and amid holiday seasons in importing countries.

Importers are also asking for quotes of the ICE January 2018 contract, which is unusually lower than the November contract, but exporters are reluctant to strike deals at a time of low prices and thin supply.

The January 2018 futures contract closed at $2,065 a tonne on Wednesday, while the November contract ended at $2,100, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Farmers in Vietnam quoted prices at 44,000-46,000 dong ($1.94-$2.02) per kg, higher than 43,000 dong-44,900 dong a week earlier, traders said, as coffee growers and middlemen held back stocks.

Trade in Vietnam may pick up next week as importers return from holidays and as exporters start looking for contracts for the upcoming harvest season starting in October, said independent analyst Nguyen Quang Binh.

Indonesia’s grade 4 defect 80 robusta traded at $10 discount to the November contract, as it did last week.

“Everything is same as last week; there’s no notable change,” said an exporter in Lampung province, in the island of Sumatra.

The coffee harvest in the southern region of Indonesia’s main growing region Sumatra has ended. ($1 = 22,738 dong)

With Reuters

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