A farmer harvests coffee. Currently, Vietnamese coffee prices have exceeded VNĐ100,000 (around $4 at current exchange) per kilo - the highest price ever. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — With 652,000 tonnes of coffee exported to the EU worth US$1.66 billion in 2023, Việt Nam was the second biggest coffee supplier of the EU in terms of volume and third largest supplier in terms of value.

Even though the EU's coffee import in 2023 dropped by 9 per cent in volume and 10.2 per cent in value from 2022, Vietnamese coffee exports to this market decreased only slightly, by 1.4 per cent in volume and 0.02 per cent in value. Therefore, Việt Nam's share in the EU’s total coffee imports increased from 14.85 per cent in 2022 to 16.08 per cent in 2023.

Currently, Vietnamese coffee prices have exceeded VNĐ100,000 (around $4 at current exchange) per kilo - the highest price ever.

Nguyễn Nam Hải, Chairman of the Việt Nam Coffee and Cocoa Association, said that Việt Nam is the largest Robusta coffee-producing country in the world. Roasters around the world still have high demand and are looking for suppliers from Việt Nam.

In particular, Europe still has a high demand for coffee while Việt Nam is almost the only one supplier, at least from now until the end of April 2024.

“From January to the end of April, if EU importers want to buy Robusta coffee, they can only rely on Việt Nam because other coffee growing regions in the world have not entered harvest season," a representative from a coffee business told online newspaper Vietnamnet. Now, local enterprises are considering carefully the time to sign supply contracts because of limited supply and high prices.

According to export businesses, Vietnamese Robusta coffee has a relatively solid and irreplaceable position in the world market. Despite the supply shortage, Vietnamese coffee is still sought after by foreign roasters. This provides the basis and room for coffee export prices to continue to increase.

Trade associations and businesses predicted that because supply has decreased significantly, both farmers and businesses will run out of coffee stocks by the end of April.

The phenomenon has never happened in the past 30 years in the Vietnamese coffee industry.

According to the European Coffee Federation, the EU has the highest per capita coffee consumption in the world. Its coffee market is expected to reach $47.88 billion in 2024 and $58.14 billion in 2029, an average growth of 3.96 per cent in the 2024-29 period. — VNS