Coffee lovers set for price pain as reserves shrink

A woman enjoys a cup of coffee at Doi Suan Ya Luang in the northern province of Nan. (Photo: Karnjana Ayuwatanachai)

Vietnam's vast hoard of coffee beans is shrinking, a phenomenon that is set to push rising global prices even higher.

Stockpiles will halve by the end of September from a year earlier, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of traders. Output from Vietnam, the world’s largest robusta supplier and second-largest coffee producer, is also expected to drop in 2022-23.