MILAN – Despite harvesting the smallest crop in four years, Vietnam ’s earnings from coffee are expected to set a new record of $4.2 billion by the end of 2023, according to news sources citing the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Mercantile Exchange of Vietnam’s Information Centre.
During the first nine months of 2023, Vietnam shipped 1.25 million tons of coffee, down 8.3% from the same period of 2022.
The Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) mentioned that the nation’s exports in the third quarter slowed down due to limited supply.
The world’s biggest producer of Robusta reaped a crop of 1.67 million tons, down 7% from the previous harvest season, according to a Bloomberg survey of exporters and traders released earlier this year.
Crop expectations gradually declined as the harvest progressed, as farmers focused more on growing durians and their attention was drawn away by a local property boom.
Higher export earnings reflect a higher demand for lower-quality variety, whose prices reached 15-year highs earlier this year.
The 4.2 billion dollar target will provide a firm foundation for the export target of 6 billion dollars by 2030.
In other news, Phạm Quang Anh, director of the Mercantile Exchange of Vietnam’s Information Centre, emphasised the importance for the coffee industry to concentrate on quality and enhance the added value of coffee products through processing to boost exports.
Enterprises and farmers should collaborate to establish production chains, making it more feasible to adopt modern technology and promote the shift from raw to processed coffee, he suggested.
Increasing processed coffee could be a solution for Vietnam to boost exports, benefiting from signed free trade agreements that offer preferential tariffs of 0-5 per cent for processed coffee products, Trần Thanh Hải, deputy director of the Import-Export Department (MoIT), stated.
