How can foreign speculators corner the market when Vietnam is the world’s second biggest coffee producer?
In fact, our association, Vicofa, has often warned members about the risks of ‘playing the market.’ This same thing occurred in October 2008, and is remembered as ‘black October’. However, enterprises have not learned their lesson. The are two big coffee trading floors in the world, in London and New York. No Vietnamese enterprise has sold coffee on the New York exchange, while only a few enterprises have sold directly in London. Typically foreign enterprises (twelve of them are present here in Vietnam) purchase Vietnam’s coffee and then sell on the London exchange to make profit. Vietnam’s coffee export price is typically the sale price in London minus $120. Vietnamese enterprises do not associate with or cooperate with each other. Each tracks information about the world market, but they do not know to filter it. This is the weak point that has enabled foreign speculators to play them for fools. The speculators have continuously been spreading forecasts to influence the market and cat
