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Rain boosts Vietnam coffee fruiting
The coffee harvest in Vietnam, the world’s second-largest producer, has been aided by rain this month, which helped fruit production.
The wet weather may help to ease concern about previous damage to the crop caused during flowering, Hua Thanh Hong, business manager at September 2nd Import-Export Co., said from the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak.
Hong’s company is one of the nation’s three biggest coffee exporters by volume.
The production boost may narrow a decline in the global harvest forecast by the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service for the marketing year from October 1. Most Vietnamese output is Robusta, the strong-tasting bean used in blends and instant drinks.
“The weather has been favorable for crops in general and coffee in particular,” Hong said in a phone interview late Tuesday. “There were rains when most of the trees were making fruits.”
Coffee beans form inside cherries or fruits, and adequate rainfall prevents the crop from shriveling. Earlier this year, rain had hurt the flowering of Vietnam’s coffee bushes, before a dry spell in April harmed initial fruiting.
Robusta coffee on Thursday dropped as much as 1.2 percent to US$1,424 a ton on the Liffe exchange in London, the lowest compared with intraday prices since the contract started trading in January 2008.
Global production
The global coffee harvest will drop 5.4 percent to 127.44 million bags in the 2009-2010 year as Brazil, the largest grower, enters a less productive phase, the USDA said on June 12. A bag weighs 60 kilograms, or 132 pounds.
Vietnam may harvest 18.35 million bags in 2009-2010, about 6.7 percent less than this year, the agency said.
Macquarie Group Ltd. said in a May 27 report that global coffee demand will outpace supply by 4.6 million bags in the 12 months ending September 2010, overturning a surplus.
“We have had good weather,” said Pham Dinh Khai, director of An Giang Coffee Co.’s branch in Buon Ma Thuot, the provincial capital of Dak Lak.
The rain will help farmers who have dwindling stockpiles left from the last harvest, he said. Farmers will gather and dry the coffee now on bushes from about October.
The rainfall in Buon Ma Thuot totaled 60.9 millimeters in the first 10 days of this month, up from 49.3 millimeters in the same period last year, according to the Dak Lak Hydrology and Meteorology Office.
thanhnien, Bloomberg
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