Coffee lovers set for price pain

Shrinking supply: A worker fills a bag with coffee at a store with imports from Brazil, Colombia and Vietnam in Buenos Aires. The global coffee market is facing one of the biggest deficits in recent memory after drought and frost slashed Brazilian output. — AP

HO CHI MINH CITY: Vietnam’s vast hoard of coffee beans is shrinking, a phenomenon that is set to push rising global prices even higher.

Stockpiles will halve by the end of September from a year earlier, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of traders.