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.