Robusta Coffee Advances in London as Rain Slows Vietnam Harvest

By Marianne Stigset

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Robusta coffee advanced for a third day in London as rain slowed the harvest in Vietnam, the world's biggest producer of the bean variety. White sugar also gained.

Rain is delaying harvesting, which usually begins this month, in Central Vietnam, the largest coffee growing region in the country, an agricultural official said. Scattered showers and thundershowers are forecast for Vietnam today, according to DTN Meteorlogix LLC.

``Harvesting of coffee will be slowed as rains started earlier this week and were forecast to last for a couple of days,'' said Nguyen Van Sinh, deputy director of the agricultural department in Vietnam's coffee-growing province of Dak Lak.

Robusta for January delivery rose $13, or 0.8 percent, to $1,655 a metric ton as of 10:57 a.m. on London's Liffe exchange. The beans have declined 13 percent this year, less than the 19 percent drop in the UBS Bloomberg CMCI index of 26 raw materials.

Vietnamese farmers have harvested about 5 to 10 percent of the crop in Dak Lak for the crop year ending Sept. 30, 2009, Sinh said by phone yesterday. The province accounts for 180,000 hectares (445,000 acres), or 40 percent, of the country's coffee land, according to Sinh.

Arabica coffee futures for December delivery climbed 0.7 percent to $1.13 a pound on ICE Futures U.S.

Brazil, the world's biggest coffee grower, will produce 50 million bags of coffee this year, down from 52.5 million bags forecast at the beginning of the season, because smaller beans and a harvest delay lowered yields, Rohit Savant, an analyst at CPM Group in New York, said yesterday. A bag weighs 60 kilograms (132 pounds).

Brazil's coffee stockpiles at the beginning of the current crop year reached their lowest since at least 1960, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Coffee trees in Brazil were in the higher-production period of a two-year cycle in 2008 and will enter the lower yielding part next year.

Among other agricultural commodities, cocoa for March delivery climbed 4 pounds, or 0.3 percent, to 1,360 pounds ($2,259) a ton on Liffe. White sugar for March delivery climbed $5.40, or 1.6 percent, to $344.40 a ton.

To contact the reporter on this story: Marianne Stigset in Oslo at mstigset@bloomberg.net