On the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in New York robusta futures contracts ended the week down 1.2% at US$1,600 per metric ton.

On the ICE New York futures transaction floor, the price of Arabica coffee dropped by US$175 per metric ton in just one day.

For ICE January tracking, Vietnamese robusta fell to US$1,570-US$1,600 (VND35,100,000-35,800,000) per metric ton in Dak Lak, the country's biggest growing province, down from US$1,610-US$1,620 (VND36,000,000-36,200,000) a week ago.

"Low prices are driving many Vietnamese farmers to delay the start of the fall harvest." said a grower in Dak Lak's district of Cu M'gar, “as they won’t end up with much to show for it.”

Exporters sought to sell Vietnamese robusta grade 2, 5% black and broken at a premium of US$40 a metric ton to the January contact this week for loading in December, against premiums of US$30-US$40 a metric ton last Tuesday.

Trading has slowed because of the latest price drops, but recent sales could boost Vietnam's coffee exports next month, a Vietnamese trader at a European company in Ho Chi Minh City said.

The trader added that most of the coffee being loaded this month and in November will still come from the 2014/2015 crop that ended in September.

Coffee is Vietnam's second-biggest commodity among agricultural produce after shrimp and fish.

The bitter beans, used mostly for making soluble coffee, brought in US$3.55 billion last year while revenues in the first nine months of this year totalled nearly US$2 billion.