* Around 1.67 million bags left for sale
   * Buyers turn to Indonesia
   * The coming 2009/2010 crop to fall 6.8 percent
   
   By Ho Binh Minh
   HANOI, June 2 (Reuters) - Thin coffee stocks in Vietnam and rising prices have pushed buyers to turn to fresh crop beans in rival Indonesia, traders said on Tuesday.
   Traders said there are now fewer than 5 million 60 kg (132.3 lb) bags of coffee left in Vietnam, close to the volume of exportable coffee for the whole of 2009 in the world's number two robusta producer Indonesia, where the harvest peaks next month. 
  

 "The volume open for sales would be 100,000 tonnes (1.67 million bags) or less, as we need to deduct the beans farmers retain for the next crop and those in warehouses," a trader in Dong Nai province said, adding that his calculation was based on a crop of 20 million bags.
   The coffee held in warehouses by exporters and by foreign trading firms and awaiting loading stood at a combined 100,000 tonnes, traders said.
   Indonesia's 2009 coffee exports may fall as much as 30 percent from 448,311 tonnes shipped last year, a six-year high,  as lower demand and softer global prices take their toll, the Indonesian Coffee Association said mid-April. 
   "Buyers cannot easily buy the remaining stock in Vietnam, and exporters are now reluctant to sell, so it's a fact that some buyers have already been buying from Indonesia instead," the Dong Nai-based trader said.
   Vietnamese exporters were offering discounts between $90 and $100 per tonne to London's September contract , which closed up $23 a tonne on Monday at $1,569.
   Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken were quoted at around $1,470 a tonne on free-on-board basis, up from $1,420-$1,440 a week ago  
   Indonesia offered fresh robusta beans grade 4, 80 defects at a wider range of between $1,460 and $1,480 a tonne, free-on-board Lampung on Monday, unchanged in the past week. Indonesia's coffee harvest peaks in July-August.
   Traders said Vietnamese prices have been tracking gains in London robusta futures but thin stocks and buyers already starting to leave had prevented exporters from realising strong sales last month.
   Vietnam ended its coffee harvest in January and the next harvest under the 2009/2010 crop year is due to start in late October.
   May coffee exports from Vietnam, the world's second largest producer of the commodity after Brazil and first in robusta production, rose 23.3 percent from a year ago to an estimated 1.5 million bags, the government said. [ID:nHAN485135]
   Coffee production for 2009/2010 should be 6.8 percent lower than 2008/2009 due to losses caused by weather damage in the main growing areas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture attache in Hanoi said in a report late last month. [ID:nN26481198]
   It forecast the next crop at 18.33 million bags, from 19.67 million harvested in the current 2008/2009 season. Vietnam's coffee crop year lasts between October and September. (Editing by John Ruwitch) (( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ; +844 3825 9623;