Coffee groans as heavy rainfall, winds hit Vietnam

Onome Amuge

Torrential rains and strong winds triggered by a typhoon has resulted in a partial destruction of Vietnam’s key coffee growing region this week, posing a threat to the country’s harvest.

Typhoon Molave, the most intense one to hit the world’s second largest coffee producing country flooded low-lying areas in major coffee-growing regions, ripping off coffee cherries off trees.

Weather forecasts of the country’s meteorological and hydrological centre for the Central Highlands is grim as Vietnam’s main coffee belt is expected to see irregular rainfall over the next 10 days, which would adversely affect harvesting.

“No estimation of the storm’s impact is available yet but continuous rainfall has prevented beans from turning ripe and ready for harvest,” said a trader based in the coffee belt.

Another trader living in the region raised concerns over the rains continuing in the first week of November which would hinder the bean picking and drying process.

“It looks like new beans might not be available until the second half of November,” he said.

The devastating situation has led to a rise in coffee prices in the regions as farmers in the Central Highlands sold coffee at 32,400-34,000 dong (Vietnam currency), compared with last week’s 31,100-33,000 dong range.

Analysts and investors are expecting a rise in coffee price for the month of November as the depressing coffee situation in Vietnam is bound to place a strain on Brazil’s exportation.

On the other hand, Brazil, the world’s leading coffee producer recorded highs in exports for the month of September. The Coffee Exporters Council stated that the country shipped about 3.8 million bags of coffee last month, an 8.6 per cent increase over September 2019. Green coffee exports of 3.5 million bags also rose by 11.5

per cent.