Climate change is threatening Vietnam's coffee exports

A view of Nguyen’s coffee plantation. Climate change has long been present in the country on the Mekong, and the rains in the monsoon season are becoming more irregular or failing to materialise at all. As a result, coffee exports are declining. — Photos: dpa

Weary after watering his coffee plantation all day, Nguyen Van Thien says the rain he needs for farming is growing scarce as monsoons become more erratic.

“The rainy season in the Central Highlands usually runs from the beginning of May to October,” he says. But in recent years, monsoons stopped following this pattern. “June this year passed without a single raindrop.”