"Most less better-off people have sold all their stocks and the beans remaining in the hand of rich farmers and speculators are not much and they are not in the hurry to sell, putting pressure on prices to go up further," a trader in Buon Ma Thuot said.

   London 's September robusta contract <LKDU8> slid $24 to end at $2,336 per tonne on Monday, but was still $112 higher than on June 16, providing strong support to prices in Vietnam , traders said.

   They said discounts to September contracts widened to $205 to $210 a tonne this week, from $170-$185 last week, meaning robusta grade 2, 5 percent black and broken beans would be $2,126-$2,130 a tonne, free-on-board basis, from $2,030-$2,054 a tonne last week.

   "The weakened dong versus the dollar is also a factor that have been driving up prices as some farmers demanded to use the black market exchange rates to calculate their sales," another trader in Buon Ma Thuot said.

   The dollar rose to a record 19,000-19,400 dong last Friday on the black markets, up nearly 20 percent over the past three months and versus the official dong rate of around 16,450 to the dollar.

   Concerns over the government's ability to cope with a record high trade deficit and double-digit inflation at 25.2 percent last month have been weighing on the dong. 

   Vietnam 's trade deficit would more than triple to $16.9 billion in the first half of this year, a state newspaper reported on Monday. [ID:nHAN39748] ($1=16,451 dong)