SINGAPORE: Coffee harvesting in Vietnam may face at least a week’s delay as pandemic-related curbs and quarantine requirements in the country’s coffee-growing region hindered the cherry picking process.

Farmers in the Central Highlands, Vietnam’s largest coffee-growing area, sold coffee at 40,500-42,500 dong($1.78-$1.87) per kg, unchanged from a week earlier. “There is a shortage of people picking cherries here,” said a trader based in Dak Lak province in the Central Highlands, which has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. “Some cherry pickers have contracted the virus, while others came into contact with the infected and were required to quarantine,” the trader said.

New beans were expected to come by the second half of November, however, traders estimated that with the current labour shortage and travel restrictions between provinces, the harvesting time might be delayed by at least a week.

“Pandemic-related measures are not the same across the provinces in the Central Highlands and that has caused confusion among traders and may slow trading activities,” another trader based in the same region said.