Rain delays Vietnam coffee harvest, crop unhurt

Heavy rain in Vietnam\'s Central Highlands coffee belt in the past week has disrupted coffee harvesting, but the crop remains safe, traders and state media said.

Concern over supply as rain delayed the harvest in Vietnam, the world\'s second-largest coffee producer after Brazil, played a part in lifting London robusta prices to a two-year high this week.

Heavy rain has hit the top growing province of Daklak since Oct. 29. Floods swept away a teenager and submerged 33 houses and 5,000 hectares of rice, corn and sugar cane, Dak Lak newspaper said on Thursday.

Daklak\'s eastern area, which is not a big coffee region, was the hardest hit, the report said, citing the province\'s flood prevention committee.

"Such rains have delayed cherry ripening, but the quality is not a problem as the harvested volume so far is small, but rains mean farmers cannot go out harvesting," said a trader from Buon Ma Thuot, the capital of Daklak province.

So far only 30 percent of this crop\'s cherries have ripened, while by the same time last year half of the crop was mature, he said.

Continuing rain, brought by a tropical low pressure system that also led to flooding in the nearby coastal provinces of Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa, is forecast to last until Saturday in Daklak, the provincial weather bureau said.

The International Coffee Organization said in its October report that heavy rain was likely to have a negative impact on crops in Vietnam and Colombia as well as in Central America. It did not give any forecast of damage.

Traders in Daklak said the coffee crop remained safe as trees were planted mostly on hillsides above the flood level but said prolonged rain could affect bean quality as farmers would be unable to dry cherries outdoors.

As the start of the harvest in 2009, prolonged rains from a storm disrupted the harvest and prevented farmers\' from drying beans, resulting in a larger-than-usual number of black beans, counted as a defect in coffee export.

One coffee exporter said supply for loading in early December could also be affected if rain continued into the middle of November, when the pace of harvesting should accelerate.

Robusta beans can be ready for loading after a drying process that takes at least seven days.