Vietnam's Coffee Prices Hit a Nine-Year High
Drought cut Vietnam's coffee output by 15%, but prices surged 57%. Exports hit USD 5.5 billion, up 32% year-on-year.
[Vietnam's Coffee Prices Hit a Nine-Year High]
▍ Record Prices
Vietnam's coffee bean prices reached a nine-year high of USD 4,037 per ton.
Drought slashed 2024 output by 15%, but average prices jumped 57%. Coffee export revenue hit USD 5.5 billion, up 32% from the previous year. Global demand for Vietnamese beans showed no signs of retreat despite the price surge.
▍ Climate Change Hits Agricultural Commodities
Coffee is not the only crop affected. Pepper, chili, and cocoa prices have all hit multi-year highs due to climate change.
How Vietnam's agricultural sector deploys new farming technology to counter these climate impacts could be an opportunity for collaboration.
▍ The Rise of Robusta
Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil. But Vietnam specializes in robusta, not the arabica variety more commonly consumed in East Asia. In robusta, Vietnam ranks first globally.
Robusta is easier to grow — more heat-tolerant, drought-resistant, and disease-resistant — and yields more per hectare than arabica. In the 1990s, robusta output was only one-third of arabica's. Today the two are roughly equal. As climate change intensifies, robusta could surpass arabica within a decade.
