Coffee growers in Dak Lak worry about poor crop
Coffee growers in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak have enjoyed sharply increasing prices but are also worried about the poor crop due to droughts and diseases.
H Loan Nie from Cu M’gar District said the family harvested 1.50 tonnes of coffee from one hectare before the Lunar New Year 2024. With a price of VND80,000 per kilo, they earned VND120 million (USD4,800). To date, the coffee price has risen to VND105,000 per kilo.
Coffee trees in Dak Lak hard hit by drought.
However, according to Loan, the dry season has come earlier and lasted longer than usual this year, affecting coffee trees. “My coffee garden is quite far from the reservoirs. We mainly use wells for irrigation, but the groundwater is drying up. Our family’s coffee productivity would be severely hit this year,” Loan concerned.
Coffee farmers in Dak Lak have also fretted over attacks from the mealybugs which can spread quickly.
Y Toan Bya from Ea Ning Commune in Cu Kuin District reported that mealybugs have appeared densely in his family's 1.5-hectare coffee farm over the past few days.
In the previous season, mealybugs also appeared but not as much as this year. He used pesticides but the pests were not removed.
Dak Lak is known as the country’s coffee hub with a total area of 212,000 hectares. Every year, Dak Lak’s coffee output is estimated at around 520,000 tonnes, accounting for more than 30 percent of the national output. Coffee from Dak Lak is exported to over 100 countries.
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