Coffee Farmers in Vietnam Curbing Sales as Drought Hurts

Coffee farmers in Vietnam, the world’s biggest producer of the robusta beans used by Nestle SA in instant drinks, are limiting sales to seek higher prices amid a drought that may reduce the next harvest.

Sales probably reached 820,000 metric tons, or 57 percent of the crop, less than the 60 percent sold a year earlier, according to the median of 11 trader and shipper estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The harvest that started in October may have dropped 13 percent to 1.43 million tons from a record 1.65 million tons in 2011-2012, the survey shows.