Vietnam new coffee beans to hit market late Nov
    * Harvest will be about a month later than last year
   * Cherries still ripening
   * Exporters cautious about price risks
    (Adds details, prices)
  By Ho Binh Minh
  HANOI, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Supply of Vietnamese robusta coffee beans will start to hit the market late next month in the Central Highlands coffee belt when the harvest gathers pace, exporters said on Friday.
   The late arrival of coffee beans from the world's second-largest producer after Brazil could boost London robusta futures prices, which lost ground earlier this week as rain brought relief to the Brazilian crop after a dry spell.

   "Cherries have not ripened yet, so we expect supplies to arrive from the second half of November," an executive at a major coffee export company in Vietnam's top coffee growing province of Daklak said.
   The 2010/2011 coffee crop year commences on Friday, but harvesting will not get under way until late October or early November, about a month later than last year. Robusta beans will be ready for loading after a drying process that takes at least seven days.
   Last year the harvest began in early October but it was disrupted in early November by a storm and traders said the ratio of black beans, counted as a defect, rose because of the rains.
   "This year exporters aren't signing contracts with shipment too far ahead because of price risks," another exporter in Ho Chi Minh City said.
   A kg of robusta beans dropped 1.55 percent to 30,200-30,300 dong ($1.55) on Friday from a two-year high of 30,900 dong per kg reached on Thursday. 
   Exporters said they now offered the new beans at discounts of $120-$130 a tonne to London's January contract <LRCF1> for loading between this November and next January. ($1=19,480 dong) (Editing by John Ruwitch and Michael Urquhart)  
  
Friday, 01 October 2010 16:07:12RTRS