The 2017-18 coffee crop is expected to be around 1.4 million, which is equal to or slightly lower than last year’s crop, according to the Viet Nam Coffee and Cocoa Association.

Nguyen Nam Hai, the deputy chairman of the association, said the annual coffee crop would enter the harvest season in October or November.

If the weather is favourable this year, Central Highlands’ provinces, which account for more than 90 per cent of the country’s coffee cultivation area, will have 1.3 million tonnes of coffee.

Last year, the region encountered a severe drought but this year coffee gardens have had enough water for irrigation.

But because coffee farms have many old trees, coffee output is expected to remain about the same last year, he said.

Coffee prices in the domestic market reached a peak in January when a kilo of coffee sold for VND47,000.

The price was VND43,000-VND43,500 a kilo on May 19 depending on locality, a reduction of VND200 from the preceding day.

Viet Nam’s coffee exports in the 2016-17 crop (which ran from October last year to September this year) will reach 1.4-1.5 million tonnes, he said.

As of April 30, the country exported more than 960,000 tonnes of coffee, he said.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, enterprises exported 1.79 million tonnes of coffee for a value of US$3.36 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of nearly 34 per cent in volume and 24 per cent in value.

The average export price was $1,872 a tonne, a reduction of 6 per cent over 2015.

The average export price reached $2,267 a tonne in the first quarter of this year, up 33 per cent over the same period last year, according to the ministry’s figure.

The country earned $1.34 billion from exporting 592,000 tonnes of coffee in the first quarter, an increase of 19 per cent in value but a reduction of 11 per cent in volume. — VNS