Singapore, May 7 - Vietnam's plans to revamp its current coffee export quality standards are unlikely to be implemented by Oct. 1 this year as originally announced by the government, a senior industry association official said Wednesday.
"The new quality standards will be fully applied from 2010, and we will ask all exporters to apply the new standards in early 2010," said Luang Van Tu, chairman of the Vietnam Coffee Association.
Tu said it was unlikely that changes would be in place in time for the new robusta crop due from November.
"The government has yet to confirm details," he said.
Under the current norms, quality is measured by the percentage of black or broken coffee beans permitted for various grades.
Three years ago, the government unsuccessfully tried to improve Vietnam's coffee export standards with the introduction of a stricter national quality code, compatible with international regulations.
This involved grading the beans based on the percentage of defects per 60-kg bag of coffee, with the scope of defects expanded beyond black and broken beans to include coffee mold, immature beans and unwanted objects such as sticks and stones.
This year, Vietnamese coffee accounted for 41% of all rejections at European ports, according to a Morgan Stanley research report.
Vietnam is the world's largest producer of robusta coffee beans.