Vietnam’s Coffee Harvest Delays Lengthen as More Rains Forecast

By Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Harvesting of Vietnam’s coffee crop, the world’s second biggest after Brazil, will be delayed further because of rains, agricultural and weather officials said.

Dak Lak province, Vietnam’s biggest coffee-growing area, will receive more rains over the next ten days, according to a report published yesterday by the province’s Hydrology and Meteorology Office. “Recent heavy and prolonged rains have hindered the coffee harvest and other agricultural production in the province,” the report said.

A delay in harvesting may help extend gains in coffee prices. Vietnam is the world’s biggest producer of robusta beans, which are used mainly in instant coffee. Robusta for January delivery climbed $82, or 4.5 percent, the biggest gain in almost three weeks, to close yesterday at $1,895 a metric ton on London’s Liffe exchange.

“Farmers have had to stop picking the cherries because they can’t dry the beans in this wet weather,” said Nguyen Van Sinh, deputy director of the agricultural department in the province. “For coffee that has been harvested, it’ll be difficult to ensure the quality.”

As much as 50 percent of this year’s crop has been gathered in Dak Lak so far, Sinh said yesterday in a telephone interview. “Normally, about 70 percent to 80 percent of the crop has been collected by this time of year,” he said. The harvest is usually finished by mid-December.

Rainfall in Buon Ma Thuot, Dak Lak province’s largest coffee area, totaled 93 millimeters (3.7 inches) from Nov. 11 to Nov. 21, up from 49 millimeters in the same period last year, the weather report said. Buon Ho and Cu M’Nga, the second- and third- biggest coffee areas in the province, received 111.3 millimeters and 102 millimeters in the period, compared with 37 millimeters and 17 millimeters a year earlier, it said.

Wet weather has “slowed the amount of fresh beans that are coming into the market,” said Nguyen Ngoc Thu, a trader in Ho Chi Minh City for Icona Cafe, a Madrid-based trading company and among the 10 biggest overseas buyers of Vietnamese produce. “It has delayed deliveries from some of our local suppliers.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen in Hanoi at uyen1@bloomberg.net.