Vietnam’s coffee production in the 2013 – 2014 crop is forecast to drop 15 percent from the previous crop to stand at 1.2 million tonnes, turning out the second bad harvest that would hit the country in a row.

The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association pointed the finger to droughts and hailstorms that occurred in June as the culprits.

The weather pattern destroyed 5,000 hectares of coffee plants and severely affected another 27,000 hectares in the Central Highlands – the country’s largest coffee-growing area.

As of July, the country shipped 890,000 tonnes of coffee worth nearly 1.91 billion USD. Prices of export coffee averaged 2,160 USD per tonne, a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent.

The shipment last month experienced a yearly plunge of 21.3 percent to 90,000 tonnes and is projected to fall further in August and September.

At present, Germany and the US are the largest markets of Vietnamese coffee, accounting for 13.1 percent and 11.4 percent of the market share, respectively. However, export earnings from these markets have plummeted 21.1 percent and 28.6 percent year on year, respectively.-VNA