Washington, May 26 - Following are selected highlights from a report issued by a U.S. Department of Agriculture attache in Hanoi:
"Vietnam's coffee production for CY 2008/2009 is projected to increase by 7.3 percent over the previous crop year. However, coffee production for CY 2009/2010 should be about 6.8 percent lower than CY 2008/2009 due to losses caused by weather damages in the main coffee growing areas. Coffee growers continue to expand their acreage despite government efforts encouraging them to focus instead on replacing old trees and improving coffee quality and farming efficiency. Vietnam plans to invest up to $1.9 billion into the coffee sector to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese Coffee."