Coffee shipments unaffected by attacks

Coffee shipments unaffected by attacks

Dow Jones, Singapore

Asian coffee export shipments for the fourth quarter haven't been hampered by the U.S.-led attack against targets in Afghanistan, industry participants said Monday.

Exporters from India, Vietnam and Indonesia said their shipments will arrive as scheduled in Europe, Japan or U.S. ports as the vessels carrying the coffee won't pass through the conflict zone.

"Indian coffee is shipped out mostly through the Cochin or Chennai ports in the southern part of India. These ports are far from Afghanistan," said Hameed Huq, vice president for operations of Tata Coffee Ltd. - one of India's biggest coffee exporters.

"We haven't heard of any delays," said one official at a major trading house in Ho Chi Minh city.

Some Mediterranean ports are reportedly charging a war surcharge for incoming shipments, he added. But he said any such surcharge isn't collected in most European ports or in other ports around the world.

Nuril Hakim, vice chairman of Indonesia Coffee Exporters Association, said Indonesia's coffee shipments to Japan, South Korea and Europe are on schedule.

"The Indonesian exporters' problem now is the low world prices and big production from Vietnam and Brazil," Nuril said, adding that the conflict between the U.S. and Afghanistan isn't a main concern for the association at the moment.