Vietnam is expected to harvest 810, 000-870,000 tons of coffee in the 2006-2007 crop, starting from November, from 690,000 tons in the previous one, according to the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association on Wednesday.

Local farmers and enterprises should join hands to grow and process coffee on larger scale by employing more advanced equipment and technologies, the association said, noting that many coffee exporters in Vietnam are weak in terms of finance, trade expertise, and information analysis capability.

Vietnam, the world's second biggest coffee exporter, shipped abroad 634,000 tons of coffee worth 733 million U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, down 8.7 percent in volume, but up 33.8 percent in value against the same period last year, according to the country's General Statistics Office.

Vietnam, which had some 505,000 hectares of coffee by mid-2005, exported 885,000 tons of coffee totaling 725 million dollars in 2005, down 9.2 percent in volume, but up 13.1 percent in value over 2004. Its major importers were the European Union, the United States, Japan and Singapore.

Source: Xinhua