AsemconnectVietnam - Coffee trading in Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, picked up pace this week while prices gained in Indonesia where demand and supply have been stable since the end of the harvest, traders said on Thursday.

November robusta coffee LRCc2 settled up $31, or 1.6 percent, at $1,986 per tonne, after peaking at $1,997, the highest for the second month since February 2015.

The Vietnamese R1 grade, screen 16, similar to Sumatran coffee, was trading between par and $10/tonne above the ICE robusta November contract  LRCc2, dropping from the $30-$40/tonne premiums seen last week.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese old-crop coffee grade 2, 5 percent black and broken beans stood at discounts of $40-$60 a tonne to London's November contract. At discount of $60/T, the gap is the biggest for Vietnamese R2 beans since Feb. 10, 2015.

The country exported 1.6 million tonnes (26.67 million 60-kg bags) of coffee between October 2015 and August, a jump of 33 percent from a year ago, based on customs data.

Trading in Vietnamese coffee is expected to slow down next month as farmers have lower stocks and as exporters are reluctant to sell on expectations of a delayed harvest, traders said earlier this week.

The supply and demand situation has not changed much in Indonesia since the harvest ended, traders said.

Indonesian robusta grade 4, 80 defects  COFID-G4-USD was quoted at between discounts of $10 and premiums of $10 a tonne to London's November contract, up from discounts of $10-$15 last Thursday.

Source: Reuters.com