MILAN – Drought and water shortages in country’s central highlands will “seriously affect” the next Robusta crop, according to the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association, or VICOFA. River levels will be 60-80% below average in the first four months of 2016, and 30-50% down in the May-June period, the Association warned.
“The situation with drought will seriously affect Robusta coffee production in the Central Highlands,” VICOFA said.
However, the association did not provide a forecast of potential crop losses.
Dak Lak province has designed a plan with a 15.3 trillion VND (680 million USD) on building irrigation systems in concentrated coffee farming areas, with the aim of ensuring water for 74,247ha as of 2020.
According to a plan for the 2015-16 crop, the province will ship abroad about 250,000 tonnes of coffee beans, up nearly 83, 000 tonnes against the last crop.
