Vietnam will slash its 2001-2002 coffee production by 20 percent to 30 percent to help reduce a world coffee glut and boost prices, state-controlled media reported yesterday.
The president of Vietnam's Coffee and Cocoa Association, Doan Trieu Nhan, said the area planted in coffee would be reduced by 150,000 to 180,000 hectares, the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said. That would reduce production by 20 percent to 30 percent, he said.
For its 2000-2001 coffee crop, Vietnam produced 14 million bags of coffee, or 12.3 percent of the world's 114 million bags of coffee, he said.
Rapid increases in Vietnam's coffee production over the past 10 days have contributed to surpluses on the world market and record-low prices. Local companies are exporting coffee at US$300 per ton, or nearly half of their production cost, Nhan said.
Nhan quoted the president of the World Coffee Council as calling Vietnam "the culprit of plummeting world coffee prices," the newspaper said.
Vietnam is the world's largest robusta coffee producer and second largest coffee producer overall after Brazil.
Nhan said the reduction in coffee plantings could be easily accomplished because the Central Highland province of Daklak, Vietnam's largest coffee growing province, has recently planned a 70,000 hectares cut for robusta coffee, and neighboring Lam Dong province has asked for a reduction of 40,000 hectares. The remainder will be cut in other coffee growing provinces, he said. Vietnam's total coffee growing area will be between 420,000 to 462,000 hectares for the next crop, he said.
The association is planning to increase the area planted in higher-grade arabica coffee to 60,000 to 70,000 hectares from 20,000 hectares now, Nhan said.
Arabica coffee is still selling well, although the price of robusta has hit 30-year lows.
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