Hanoi, Sept 29 - Vietnam's coffee exports in the 2008/2009 crop (Oct-Sept) rose 15.8 percent from the previous year to an estimated 1.13 million tonnes, or 18.85 million bags, the government said on Tuesday.
The export volume is in line with a U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast of 18.8 million bags but is slightly below the record 1.2 million tonnes shipped from the Southeast Asian country, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil, in the 2006/2007 crop year.
The General Statistics Office also estimated coffee exports this month at 45,000 tonnes, or 0.75 million 60-kg bags, a drop of 6.25 percent from the same month last year.
It revised down coffee exports last month to 54,000 tonnes from 60,000 tonnes, bringing the export volume between January and September to 884,400 tonnes, a rise of 14.4 percent from a year ago.
Revenue from coffee exports during the first nine months of the calendar year ending September dropped an estimated 19.7 percent to $1.31 billion, the statistics office said.
Coffee is the country's second-largest agro-product export in terms of value, after rice. Vietnam's coffee crop year lasts between October and September.
Vietnam may still have 1.45 million bags to carry over to the next 2009/2010 crop year, based on an estimated 19.5 million bags from the current season, plus stocks from the previous year of 1.8 million bags, less domestic consumption of 1 million bags.
The next crop could drop between 15 and 20 percent to between 16 million and 17 million bags, an industry official said in late August, well below traders' forecasts in a Reuters poll in July of 19 million bags.