Covid measures in Vietnam make coffee more expensive

Anti-epidemic measures in Vietnam are contributing to the rapid rise in coffee prices on world markets. The robusta variety has risen in price by 50 percent since the beginning of the year and has reached over $ 2,000 per tonne. Vietnam is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of this type of coffee, but traffic in the port of Ho Chi Minh City is very limited due to the covid. In the largest city in this South Asian country, cases of infection with a more contagious delta mutation have begun to increase. The city and its ports form a key part of the global transport network that runs from China to Europe. The closure of Ho Chi Minh City in southeast Vietnam means that exporters have trouble getting their goods to ports so that they can send them to customers around the world. Travel restrictions are another problem, as exporters are already facing a worldwide shortage of containers in maritime transport. This contributes to rising transport prices and, as a result, makes practically everything that is transported by sea more expensive. Robusta coffee reached a multi-year low of around $ 1,100 per tonne in the middle of last year, but then its wholesale price began to increase and at the beginning of this year it was around USD 1,370 per tonne. The Vietnamese Association of Coffee and Cocoa Growers, along with other trade organizations, has called on the government to ease restrictions to help prevent further supply delays and associated cost increases. Therefore, last week, the Minister of Transport ordered the regional authorities in the south of the country to try to reduce the impact on the transport of goods, including coffee. The Vietnamese Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that another 12,663 cases of coronavirus infection had occurred in the country per day, with 344 people dying from the infection. Most cases are in Ho Chi Minh City and adjacent industrial zones. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 435,000 people have been infected in Vietnam, which has a population of around 96 million. There are 10,749 dead. Robusta is one of the two main types of coffee that is most commonly drunk in the world. It has a market share of more than 40%, the rest falls almost entirely on Arabica coffee. Robusta usually has a more bitter taste and is used in the production of instant coffee or in some types of espresso. The difficulties in Vietnam exacerbate the already unfavorable situation that coffee growers are facing. Brazil, the world's largest grower of premium arabica coffee beans, has seen a decline in production due to drought and frosts. The biggest frosts that have hit the country since 1994 have led to rising fresh bean prices to almost a seven-year high. In addition, some growers will have to plant new plants due to frosts, which means that they may not resume coffee production in three years.