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Traders Tempt Coffee Roasters With Cheaper Vietnamese Beans

Traders Tempt Coffee Roasters With Cheaper Vietnamese Beans

Coffee traders are offering large discounts on robusta beans from Vietnam, the world’s top producer of the variety, to entice more demand from roasters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Expensive freight costs, container shortages and Covid-19 restrictions have slowed exports from the country, helping to send robusta futures to a decade high recently. That, along with tightening coffee supplies in Brazil, has seen roasters in nations including Italy and Germany diversify to other growers.

To encourage more sales of Vietnamese beans, traders have been offering discounts of roughly $300 a ton to exchange prices, said the people, who asked not to be identified. The discounts are for standard-grade robusta on a free-on-board basis from Ho Chi Minh City, they said.

Traders Tempt Coffee Roasters With Cheaper Vietnamese Beans

Futures for robusta, which is used in instant coffee, traded at $2,235 a ton in London on Wednesday. Prices have surged about 70% in the past year.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.