Vietnam, ACPC discuss coffee plan

Vietnam, ACPC discuss coffee plan

HANOI (Dow Jones): Officials from Vietnam's Ministry of
Agriculture & Rural Development and Vietnam Coffee & Cocoa
Association, or Vicofa, are meeting on Monday afternoon with
Sergio Amaral, chairman of the Association of Coffee Producing
Countries, a Vicofa official told Dow Jones Newswires.

Full details of the agenda aren't immediately available, but
the Vicofa official said plans for Vietnam to support an
international coffee retention plan - aimed at boosting global
prices - would be discussed.

Vietnam has said it will support the plan but hasn't detailed
when it wimber of ACPC and isn't bound by its decision to
restrict global coffee supplies. But country watchers say Hanoi's
per-ton coffee export revenues have fallen so far that the
government may now be ready to consider a short-term clampdown on
coffee exports in order to help longer-term revenues.

ACPC representatives last week met with Indian ministers and
officials on implementing the retention plan, but there is still
no decision from India, where officials are watching to see what
Vietnam and Indonesia will do.

"We are watching what our bigger neighbors will do...It makes
more sense to be in this together," said Lakshmi Ventakachalam,
chairperson of the India's Coffee Board.

Industry participants have said it would be difficult for
other producers in the region to abide by any retention if
Indonesia or Vietnam isn't part of it.

ACPC officials will be visiting Indonesia later this week in a
bid to campaign for the retention plan, which the ACPC plans to
implement from Oct. 1.

Vietnam and Indonesia are Asia's largest coffee growers and
dominate the world's robusta market. Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar,
Malaysia, India and the Philippines also grow and export coffee,
the Vicofa official said.