WB: Prices of key Vietnam farm products forecast to surge

The report, which provides detailed market analysis for major groups of commodities, releases price forecasts for 46 commodities until 2030.

Vietnam is the world's largest Robusta coffee grower, said the WB. The price of Robusta beans last year stood at US$2.08 a kilo but is expected to rise to US$2.32 this year but slightly drop to US$2.25 in 2019. By 2030, the price would decline to around US$1.66 a kilo.

For rice, the WB chose Thailand’s 5% broken rice as the benchmark for price forecasting. This type of rice this year is estimated at US$406 per ton, down from last year's US$422. The price would slip to below US$400 in the coming years and US$365 by 2030.

Thailand is the world’s leading rice exporter, so its rice prices are often referred to by importing countries to negotiate rice prices with exporting nations such as India, Pakistan and Vietnam. The Vietnam Food Association (VFA) has long given Thai rice price updates to member enterprises.

Regarding seafood, the WB forecast shrimp would rise to its highest price of US$12.65 per kilo this year before a steady fall in the coming years. Prices of agricultural materials including DAP and urea fertilizer are projected to edge down sharply in the years to come.

The price of rubber would surge in the coming years. RSS3 rubber could rise sharply to US$2.21 per kilo this year from US$1.71 last year. This level would remain above US$2 in the following years, and only at US$1.99 per ton in 2030.

The WB based its forecasts on 2010 prices.

Saigon Times