Central Highlands: high coffee prices offset declining output

Harvesting coffee in the Central Highlands. (Source: VNA)

Dak Lak (VNA) – A significant increase in coffee prices in the Central Highlands has helped offset a decline in output, according to the Steering Committee for the Central Highlands Region.

The committee said a long drought significantly reduced the 2016-2017 coffee harvest.

For the whole region, the output of 135,000 hectares of coffee hit by drought fellby up to 50 percent, while another 7,894 hectares died of drought.

DakLak, a major coffee producer of the country, has nearly 69,000 hectares of coffee hit by drought, of which 5,570 hectares suffer from complete loss.

However, coffee bean priceshave been at a five-year peak, increasing from 41,000VND to 42,000VND per kilogramme, bringing goodprofits to farmer households.

According to the steering committee, the Central Highlands region has a total coffee area of 573,400 hectares, of which 532,499 hectares have been in harvest, with an estimated output of over 1 million tonnes of coffee beans.

DakLakboasts the largest coffee area yielding the biggest output, with more than 453,000 tonnes of coffee beans.-VNA