London's September robusta contract <LRCU9> fell $9 to end at $1,343 per tonne on Wednesday -- not far from a lifetime low of $1,250 a tonne struck in late June, when worries about a global surplus ignited heavy fund selling. 
   "Exporters who have coffee and want to get some money can offer the beans at London levels," said a dealer at a foreign trading house in Vietnam.
   "But frankly speaking, if you buy coffee from farmers and then sell it, you must offer the beans at $90 to $120 over London."
   Dealers said Vietnamese robustas were last quoted at a premium to the London market in August 2006, when local beans were $20 more expensive than futures because of dwindling stocks and heavy rains in the world's largest robusta producer.
   "We can't even buy coffee from Vietnam right now. Farmers are still not releasing the coffee," said a dealer in Singapore, who trades robustas from Vietnam and second-largest producer Indonesia.
   The Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association stopped quoting domestic and international prices this week after asking exporters last week to halt sales of coffee from Vietnam's next 2009/2010 crop in a bid to boost prices.

 (Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)