Swiss coffee trader Sucafina is poised to enhance its presence in Vietnam, one of the world’s leading coffee producers, by acquiring Mercon Coffee Corp.’s Vietnamese business unit, Mercafe Vietnam Ltd.
This transaction follows Mercon’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the United States six months ago. The Dutch green coffee trader accumulated $363 million in debt, attributing its financial woes to logistical disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, significant price fluctuations, and rising borrowing costs.
The Sucafina deal, still pending finalization, coincides with ongoing coffee price volatility. Vietnam, the world’s largest producer of robusta coffee, has suffered prolonged heatwaves that have damaged crops, heightening concerns about supply shortages. This year, robusta futures—a global benchmark for robusta coffee prices—have surged by 50% due to the adverse weather conditions in Vietnam.
Established in 1998, Mercafe Vietnam Ltd. operates out of Ho Chi Minh City, focusing on export operations and green coffee processing in southern Vietnam. It has served as Mercon’s trading hub for Asia. Beyond Vietnam, Mercon has offices in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, and the US.
In addition to selling Mercafe Vietnam Ltd., Mercon is offloading several contracts, inventory, equipment, and intellectual property to a unit of broker StoneX Group Inc. for $5.4 million.
Sucafina, which opened its first representative office in Vietnam in 1997 and formed the Sucafina Vietnam subsidiary in 2022, currently operates green coffee processing factories with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons.
Geneva-based Sucafina has been actively expanding its global footprint through several acquisitions. In February 2019, it acquired Australian specialty coffee trader MTC. Two years later, it purchased UK-based coffee merchant Complete Coffee Limited, a supplier to Costa Coffee. In November 2022, Sucafina acquired a majority stake in Dutch instant coffee company TB Brown, and by February 2023, it took full ownership of pioneering US green coffee importer Sustainable Harvest.
With these strategic moves, Sucafina continues to solidify its position as a major player in the global coffee industry.