Coffee to get cheaper as crops are boosted

Bumper harvest: Coffee beans are roasted at a shop in Hanoi. Vietnam, the world’s biggest grower of the robusta variety used in instant coffee and espresso, has seen prices dropping more than 10% in the past two months. — Bloomberg

HANOI: Vietnam, the world’s biggest grower of the robusta variety used in instant coffee and espresso, is heading for a larger crop this season, adding to global supply and increasing pressure on prices, which have dropped more than 10% in the past two months.

The five provinces in the Central Highlands, the country’s coffee belt, expect to produce more than 1.8 million tonnes of beans from the harvest just starting, up from 1.76 million tonnes a year earlier, according to separate estimates from each province collected by Bloomberg.