Commodities
Pricey Coffee Is Here to Stay as Hoarding, Heat Hit Vietnam Supply
- Benchmark robusta prices have rallied to highest in 16 years
- Hoarding by farmers led to unprecedented contract defaults
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Coffee prices are expected to extend their meteoric surge with the hoarding of beans and poor weather set to exacerbate a supply crunch in Vietnam, the world’s biggest producer of the robusta variety.
Local prices in Vietnam have rallied to an all-time high this year as farmers and middlemen continue to hold onto beans so they don’t miss out on better deals after a weak 2023-24 harvest. That’s made it tougher for exporters to source supply and sparked a record wave of defaults on existing contracts.