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MILAN – Typhoon Kalmaegi has begun lashing Vietnam, damaging crops across the nation’s’s key coffee growing regions. The powerful storm made landfall near Dak Lak and Gia Lai provinces around 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, causing at least five deaths, three in Dak Lak province and two in Gia Lai province, according to state media.
Six people were injured. Fifty-two houses collapsed and nearly 2,600 were damaged or had their roofs blown off, including more than 2,400 in Gia Lai province alone. Power outages affected more than 1.6 million households.
Vietnam’s biggest coffee-producing province of Dak Lak appears to have dodged the worst of typhoon, according to initial assessments by an industry group reported by Bloomberg.
There were concerns that heavy rainfall and strong gusts would damage coffee plants across the Central Highlands, just after farmers started harvesting.
So far, it doesn’t appear to be serious” said Trinh Duc Minh, the chairman of the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Association in Dak Lak in an interview with the same source. “We’re still gathering information on the extent of the damage.
However, Darren Stetzel, senior vice president of agriculture in Asia at StoneX, warned that even the smallest losses could have a significant impact on supply, considering that, as has been the case in Brazil, Vietnamese crops have been plagued by weather problems and have very limited potential, reports Notícias Agrícolas.
Thus, the executive also believes that such losses ‘could reignite the upward momentum in coffee futures contracts and reinforce concerns about supply stability.’
Vietnam has already faced 12 major storms in 2025, with a heavy toll: at least 241 fatalities and economic damage amounting to over 53.8 trillion dong (over 2 billion dollars).
Kalmaegi’s looming threat did not prevent yesterday’s sharp declines on the coffee markets.
The biggest drop was recorded in New York, where the contract for December delivery lost 4.1%, falling to 396.75 cents (-1,685 points), below the $4 per pound threshold for the first time since early November. In London, the contract for January delivery fell 3.3% to close at $4,530 per tonne.
