Indonesia loses out to Vietnam in coffee exports
Indonesia loses out to Vietnam in coffee exports
TOKYO (Reuter): Japan, the world's third largest coffee
importer after the United States and Germany, is accelerating
imports from emerging producer Vietnam at the expense of
Indonesia, traders said yesterday.
Local traders said shipments from Vietnam would be further
stepped up with the re-establishment of full diplomatic ties
between the United States and Vietnam.
Japan imported 121,625 tons of green coffee for the first five
months of calendar 1995, according to data from the Ministry of
Finance.
Bean shipments from Vietnam reached 8,406 tons, sharply up
from 4,635 tons a year earlier.
"We'll depend more on Vietnam due to its growing coffee
production and price competitiveness," a Japanese trader said.
Between January and June 1995, the largest coffee exporter to
Japan was Brazil, which shipped 30,780 tons, followed by Colombia
with 24,341 tons and Indonesia with 14,201 tons.
Japan's coffee industry imports both robusta and arabica
varieties from overseas producers. The arabicas come mainly from
Latin America and Africa and the robusta mainly from Indonesia,
industry officials said.
"Indonesia has been major robusta coffee supplier. But Vietnam
is now stepping up its presence in the Japanese market, reducing
Indonesia's export share," another trader said.
Indonesia's green coffee exports to Japan for the first half
of 1995 plunged to 14,201 tons, from 19,917 tons a year earlier,
the MOF data said.
U.S. ties
Last Tuesday, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced the
normalization of diplomatic relations with Hanoi. Vietnam also
will formally join the Association of South East Asian Nations
this summer.
"We have been reluctant to buy Vietnamese coffee, partly
because Washington hesitated to trade with Hanoi," a major
trading house official said. "But the full diplomatic ties will
boost Vietnamese commodity exports to Japan as well."
Vietnam's coffee output for the 1994/95 crop year is forecast
at 180,000 tons. It exported 115,000 tons of coffee for the first
half of calendar 1995, up 25.4 percent from a year earlier,
according to Vietnamese figures.
Japanese traders said Vietnamese coffee's major competitive
advantage against Indonesia was its lower export price.
"In some cases Indonesian coffee is more expensive than
African. So it's logical for Japanese traders to rely on Vietnam
although its coffee quality may sometimes be inferior," the
trader said.
Vietnam enjoys a trade surplus with Japan, with exports
totaling about US$1.4 billion in 1994. Vietnam's imports from
Japan in 1994 were $643 million, the government-affiliated Japan
External Trade Organization said.