Asia Coffee-Vietnam, Indonesia discounts widen but in slow trade

A farmer collects coffee beans at a plantation in Dak Lak Province, located in Vietnam’s Central Highlands.

Discounts in Vietnam and Indonesia, Asia's top coffee exporters, widened as world coffee prices rose, but trading was thin in both markets, traders said on Thursday.

Rising prices of the London ICE September contract boosted local coffee price in Vietnam, the world's largest robusta producer, to 46,000-46,500 dong ($2.02-$2.04) per kg from 45,100-45,200 dong a week earlier, traders said.

The ICE September contract hit an over two-month high on Friday at $2,177 per tonne, but closed at $2,157 per tonne on Wednesday, Thomson Reuters data showed.

As London price increased, discounts of the 5-percent black and broken grade 2 robusta quoted by traders widened to $20 per tonne to the September contract, from $10-$20 discounts last week, traders said.

But trade was thin as importers asked for discounts of $40-$50 on low demand amid the summer holidays, said Phan Hung Anh, deputy director of Anh Minh Co, a coffee-trading firm based in Daklak, Vietnam's largest coffee-growing province.

Coffee exports from Vietnam will drop an estimated 15.5 percent to 829,000 tonnes in the first half of this year from the same period in 2016, the government said last month.

In rival Indonesia, robusta grade 4, 80 defects was quoted post holiday at a discount of $60 per tonne to the London September contract, compared with a $30 discount to the July contract two weeks earlier.

A trader said pricing this week is unusual because the gap between bidding and offering prices are wider than normal.

Some traders are being "greedy", the trader said.