Vietnam March coffee exports up 22 pct, above forecast

HANOI, March 25, 2011 - Vietnam's March coffee exports rose an estimated 22 percent from the same month last year to 150,000 tonnes, or 2.5 million bags, exceeding market expectations and offering relief over delivery shortages.

Coffee shipments in February were revised up to 144,000 tonnes, or 2.4 million 60-kg bags, up 87 percent from the same month in 2010, the General Statistics Office said on Friday. It previously estimated loading of 90,000 tonnes for February.

The office also revised up sharply coffee exports in January to 215,500 tonnes from a revision last month of 145,000 tonnes. It gave no explanation for the increase.

 Coffee exports between October 2010 and March 2011, the first half of the 2010/2011 crop year, would reach an estimated 13.32 million bags, the office said, up 28.4 percent from the corresponding period a year ago.

Rising exports from Vietnam could help ease concern about a possible shortage of available supplies to deliver against London's May robusta contract , which was behind a rise in the futures market on Thursday.

Traders have earlier forecast coffee exports this month from Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, at between 110,000-130,000 tonnes. 
 

The coffee crop year lasts between October and September.
 

The government estimated January-March's coffee export revenues soared 115 percent from a year ago to $1.05 billion, or an average of $2,061 per tonne, up 47.3 percent from $1,399 a tonne in the same period last year.
 

Coffee is the country's second-largest agro-product export item in terms of value, after rice.
 

Vietnam may still have 5.85 million bags left in the country, based on a median forecast of the 2010/2011 crop output at 19.75 million tonnes in a Reuters poll on March 1 [ID:nL3E7E10KX].
 

The International Coffee Organization estimated local consumption at 1.58 million bags, while 1.0 million bags had been carried from the previous 2009/2010 crop.
 

It was not clear how much of the 5.85 million bags would be available for sales, but the estimated stock is below the 7.33 million tonnes left at the end of March 2010------