Vietnam coffee harvest calendar

How the year actually runs

February–March · Flowering

The dry season breaks. Within a few days of the first significant rain, coffee across the Central Highlands flowers at once — white blossom over entire hillsides, and a smell like jasmine that carries for miles.

Timing matters enormously. If the rains come in several separate bursts, the trees flower in waves, and nine months later a single branch carries ripe, under-ripe and green cherries simultaneously. That makes selective picking far harder and pushes farmers toward stripping the branch.

April–September · Ripening

The wet season. Cherries develop slowly from hard green through yellow to deep red. Nothing much happens that a buyer sees, which is precisely when the quality of the crop is being determined.

September–January · Harvest

Arabica in Sơn La and Quảng Trị starts first, from September. Đà Lạt arabica follows in October. Central Highlands robusta is the main event, from November through January, and the Highlands fill with seasonal pickers.

November–March · Drying and milling

The dry season again, which is the whole reason natural processing works in Vietnam. Cherries dry for two to four weeks on yards, tarpaulins or raised beds, then get hulled, graded and bagged.

What this means for buying

New-crop Vietnamese green coffee generally reaches export markets from about February, and roasters have it from spring. By the following autumn, coffee on a shelf may be approaching a year from harvest.

In practice, the roast date on the bag matters far more than the harvest date for anyone buying roasted coffee. Harvest timing matters if you are buying green, or if you want to understand why a particular year's coffee is better or worse than the last.

Questions people ask

When is the coffee harvest in Vietnam?

Robusta in the Central Highlands picks from November to January. Arabica picks earlier — October to December in Lâm Đồng, and September to December in Sơn La and Quảng Trị, where the higher latitude brings the season forward.

Does Vietnam have two coffee harvests a year?

No. Vietnam flowers once, usually in February and March after the first rains, and picks once. Countries near the equator can have a main crop and a fly crop; Vietnam does not.

When is Vietnamese coffee freshest?

New-crop green coffee typically reaches export markets from roughly February onward, and roasters have it from spring. By the following autumn you are buying coffee approaching a year from harvest. For roasted coffee, the roast date matters far more than the harvest date.

Why does coffee flowering matter?

Vietnamese coffee flowers within days of the first significant rains after the dry season, and the whole crop sets at once. If those rains arrive late or in several bursts, flowering is uneven, ripening is uneven, and the harvest is harder to pick selectively.