Exceptionally dry conditions may affect Daklak, Vietnam's top coffee-growing province, in coming weeks after surface and underground water dropped quickly, a provincial state-run newspaper reported. Daklak in the Central Highlands, where the dry season is at its peak before rains return in early May, supplies a third of Vietnam's coffee. Drought between February and April - the blossom period - may reduce yields and cut output.
Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association Chairman Luong Van Tu said early this month that extensive dry weather in the Central Highlands could affect the next 2011/2012 harvest, with output expected to fall. A drought in early 2005 reduced Vietnam's 2005/2006 output by around 10 percent to 12.5 million bags.
Some streams, lakes and small dams have dried up and the dry conditions have hit seven of the 12 districts in the province of Daklak, affecting a combined 3,164 hectares of coffee, the Dak Lak newspaper run by the provincial government said. "The weather is showing complicated developments and could trigger extended drought on a large scale," the daily said, citing assessments by Daklak's Agriculture Department in an online report (baodaklak.vn) seen on Wednesday. However, the affected area represents just 1.7 percent of the total coffee area in Daklak.
The province picked 403,600 tonnes, or 6.73 million 60-kg bags, in the harvest that ended in December, up 6 percent from the previous 2009/2010 crop, data from the provincial agricultural department shows. Its next harvest is due to start from early November. Traders said good prices so far in this crop were helping farmers step up their care of trees, allowing them to increase fuel purchases for watering.