Joy mixed with worry
This year, the price of green coffee beans reached a record high, surpassing the 100,000 VND/kg mark, even reaching 135,000 VND/kg at one point. This is the highest price ever, bringing great excitement to farmers.
The increase in coffee prices has created great motivation for farmers to feel secure in production, focus on replanting and taking care of their gardens to further increase productivity and quality.
Mr. Hoang Van Vinh, in Quang Phu town, Cu M'gar district, shared: "My family has nearly 1 hectare of coffee. The high coffee price makes the whole family very happy. Every day I go online to follow the price, but there are also times when I feel nervous and stressed because the price sometimes drops very deeply."
Mr. Vinh's sharing is also understandable, because in less than a month, there were times when coffee prices increased to over 130 thousand VND/kg, but also dropped sharply to below 114 thousand VND/kg.
Thus, in just a short period of time, the difference in coffee prices fluctuated with a gap of 16,000 VND/kg. Therefore, if people choose to sell when the price is low, they can lose more than 16 million VND/ton.
As of December 11, the domestic coffee market fluctuated between 124,000 - 124,900 VND/kg. The average coffee purchase price in the Central Highlands provinces was 124,800 VND/kg, about 6,000 VND/kg below this year's peak.
Reasons for coffee price fluctuations
According to Mr. Trinh Duc Minh, Chairman of the Buon Ma Thuot City Coffee Association, coffee prices are mainly affected by international speculators.
Speculators use large amounts of capital to buy in bulk, pushing up coffee prices, then sell in large quantities, causing prices to plummet.
This is an unpredictable problem because in reality Vietnam cannot control the price of coffee. Although our country is the second largest coffee exporter in the world, it mainly exports in raw form.
Domestic coffee prices are still greatly affected by the international market every day. Therefore, coffee growers cannot be proactive in the face of price fluctuations.
The constantly fluctuating coffee prices not only make farmers nervous but also increase risks in production.
According to Mr. Minh, to reduce dependence on external fluctuations, the domestic coffee industry needs to do a good job of organizing chain linkages from production to export.
In which, there must be close cooperation and production organization between farmers, businesses, roasters, etc. When the parties join hands, they create a close production and consumption chain.
In the long term, it is necessary to increase the value of coffee beans through deep processing and brand building... While waiting for long-term solutions from relevant parties, farmers in the Central Highlands still have to struggle and anxiously face uncertain price waves.
They are both excited when prices increase but also worried every day about the ups and downs of the market.
