Vietnam is the world’s largest exporter of black pepper and the second-largest exporter of coffee. Recently, due to the impact of the El Niño phenomenon, Vietnam has been hit by drought. Although the country entered its rainy season in May, the rainfall has been insufficient to alleviate the damage caused by the drought to crops.

Therefore, in the first five months of 2024, Vietnam’s total pepper exports reached 114,400 tons. Although this represented a year-on-year decrease of 13.2%, the export value of pepper amounted to $493 million, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 20.6%.

According to reports from the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association (VPSA), the theft incidents began in September 2023 and have continued until now, involving a total of 8 batches of lost goods, including 4 batches of pepper and 4 batches of coffee beans belonging to 5 enterprises.The quantity of goods lost accounted for 7–28% of the shipment volume, all occurring in the unloading area of Cai Lai Port, totaling 19.2 tons of goods, with the largest batch loss being over 4.6 tons of coffee beans.

Therefore, many businesses suspect that the goods were lost while the container was being unloaded at Gia Lai Port and waiting for export. However, the company responsible for the port, Saigon Newport Corporation, believes that the process of moving goods from the seller’s warehouse to the buyer’s warehouse must go through multiple stages in the supply chain, such as sea transportation, arrival at the port of discharge, and transport from the port to the importer’s warehouse. Therefore, it is necessary to verify the facts to avoid misunderstandings that could affect the company’s reputation.

Regarding this incident, VPSA believes that the loss of goods will cause Vietnamese exporters to compensate or pay fines to their partners, resulting in direct financial losses for the businesses, and will also indirectly affect future contracts of the exporting companies.

Moreover, Brazilian coffee has now entered the harvest season, with the harvest progress of Brazilian Robusta coffee reaching 51%. In recent times, Brazil’s Robusta exports have been steadily increasing, offsetting much of the shortfall caused by reduced production in Vietnam and Indonesia. Additionally, the Red Sea crisis is affecting Eurasian shipping routes, prompting many traders to turn to Brazilian Robusta beans instead.

Furthermore, earlier issues in Vietnamese coffee trade had already seen defaults due to farmers’ reluctance to sell their beans, and with this latest port incident, the reputation and image of trading companies as well as Vietnam itself are likely to take a hit on the international market, which will not be conducive to Vietnam’s economic development.