Phan Minh Thong, president of Phuc Sinh JSC, told VietNamNet that Phuc Sinh doesn’t have enough time and officers to receive businesspeople from all over the world seeking to purchase Vietnam’s coffee.

According to Thong, Vietnam’s coffee was previously listed as a low-cost product, but now it is the top choice for Robusta buyers. Vietnam is nearly the No1 Robusta supplier in the world in terms of quantity, quality and supply.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said at the 2023 year-end press conference that together with rice and fruit, coffee exports brought record high revenue.

The General Department of Customs (GDC) estimated that Vietnam exported 1.61 million tons of coffee in 2023, earning $4.18 billion. Coffee has been named among top five farm produce items with the highest export turnover.

Though the coffee export volume in 2023 decreased by 9.6 percent compared with the year before, export turnover increased to a record high thanks to high coffee export prices.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s coffee price reached a record peak in October 2023, at $3,603 per ton, up 40.7 percent over October 2022. In the 2023, the average export price was $2,834 per ton, or 14.1 percent higher than 2022.

Experts said the supply in 2023 dropped sharply, which caused a shortage. As global consumers suffered heavily from inflation, they shifted from drinking Arabica to Robusta which had lower prices. This caused Robusta prices to increase significantly.

Robusta prices in the domestic market also fluctuated heavily in 2023. At the beginning of the year, the price hovered around VND37,000-40,000 per kilogram. Later, it escalated and surpassed the VND50,000 and then VND60,000 per kilogram threshold. The price reached its peak in July 2023 before decreasing slightly.

By the end of 2023, the Robusta price had reached a 28-year high because of fear of a low inventory level and restricted sales by large suppliers.

Analysts predict that the prices of both Robusta and Arabica will stay high in the first quarter 2024 because of fear of a supply shortage supply and a 12-year low inventory level.

The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association estimated that the coffee output in the 2023-2024 crop would drop to 1.6-1.7 million tons, lower than the 1.78 million tons of the previous crop.

Vietnamese farmers are harvesting the new crop and selling raw coffee at VND67,500-68,500 per kilogram.

Tam An