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Typhoon disrupts drying in Vietnam's coffee belt
Typhoon Mirinae brought strong wind to Vietnam's central coast and heavy rain to the nearby coffee region on Monday, disrupting early harvesting, after killing at least two people in the Philippines at the weekend.
The typhoon uprooted trees as it made landfall on the coastal provinces of Binh Dinh and Phu Yen, state-run Vietnam Television reported. The government said nearly 8,000 people had been evacuated in the central region before the typhoon arrived.
Rain fell in Daklak and Lam Dong on Monday morning, Vietnam's largest coffee-growing provinces, disrupting farmers' drying of beans, residents said.
The harvesting peaks from late this month.
"Strong wind and heavy rain struck us two hours ago," said a resident in Dalat city, the capital of Lam Dong.
A resident in neighboring Daklak said rain had been falling there since early Monday.
"If it rains like this for days, farmers won't be able to go picking cherries," she said.
Persistent rain would prevent farmers from drying their beans outdoors in the sun, a coffee trader said.
"The fear is that if rain lasts for several days, growers will have to dry beans over their wood-fired ovens, and that will make the beans dark," the trader said.
Dark beans are counted as a defect in exportable beans.
The national weather bureau forecast rain in the next 24 hours in the southern part of the Central Highlands coffee belt as the typhoon weakens to a tropical low pressure system and moves west-southwest towards Cambodia.
Vietnam is the world's second-largest coffee producer after Brazil.
Typhoon Mirinae hit the Philippines on Saturday, killing at least two people and disrupting traffic, but there were no reports of widespread damage.
thanhnien, reuters
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