HANOI, April 22 (Reuters) - Vietnam's Finance Ministry has kept unchanged the fee collected on each tonne of coffee exports at $0.40 for 2011, much lower than that sought by the country's industry body, which aims to ensure sustainable development of the coffee sector.  
  

   The fee, on par with 2010 and down from $0.5 in 2009, is collected in the calendar year ending December 31, 2011, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it had considered a proposal by the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa).   
   In March Vicofa Chairman Luong Van Tu was quoted by state media as proposing an export fee of $10 per tonne whenever global prices are above $1,800 per tonne, to raise funds for re-investing in coffee production. 
   Tu could not be reached for comment on Friday. 
   Total fees to be collected in 2011 would be valued at around $500,000, as Vietnam's coffee exports could reach 1.25 million tonnes, up 6.8 percent from 2010, based on an Agriculture Ministry forecast early this month.    
   About a third of the 540,00 hectares (1.33 million acres) of coffee grown in Vietnam, the world's second-largest producer after Brazil, are old and need gradual replacement to ensure overall yields are stable, Tu told Reuters earlier this month. 
   But the process has been slow, mainly because high coffee prices since 2010 have prevented farmers from cutting down old trees. They can only harvest the very next crop from newly planted trees in five years. 
   Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken was quoted this week at discounts of between $60-$70 a tonne to London's July contract <LRCc2>, or $2,365-$2,375 a tonne, free-on-board Saigon Port.    
 (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh;Editing by Clarence Fernandez)   
    
 
 Friday, 22 April 2011 10:02:19