Powerful Typhoon Kalmaegi poised to drench Vietnam’s key coffee region
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Vietnam has been hit by 12 major storms so far in 2025, which have left at least 241 dead and cost the economy more than 53.8 trillion dong (S$2.7 billion).
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HANOI – Typhoon Kalmaegi is tracking towards the Vietnamese coast with tree-snapping winds and is set to dump heavy rain across the nation’s key coffee-growing region, potentially damaging the new crop.
The powerful storm is currently 330km east-southeast of Quy Nhon, according to Vietnam’s meteorological agency, and is poised to make landfall late on Nov 6 or early Nov 7. The deadly typhoon has already left a trail of destruction across the Philippines.
Kalmaegi is gathering strength in the warm waters of the South China Sea and is set to reach top sustained winds of 204kmh, according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre. That is equivalent to a major Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.
Vietnam’s coffee farmers started harvesting their crop in October, and a deluge of heavy rain across the Central Highlands could damage plants and affect bean quality. The world’s biggest producer of robusta – the variety used in instant coffee and espresso – was on track for its best crop in four years.
The typhoon will lead to “delays in harvesting and possible damage from winds and flooding”, Mr Brandon Fox, a meteorologist at weather services provider Vaisala, wrote in a note on Nov 5.
Futures in London rallied the most in a month on Nov 3 on jitters about the incoming storm.
Vietnam has been hit by 12 major storms so far in 2025, which have left at least 241 dead and cost the economy more than 53.8 trillion dong (S$2.7 billion).
The area from the tourist hub of Danang to Dak Lak province could get as much as 600mm of rain from Kalmaegi through Nov 7, according to the Vietnamese weather bureau. Bloomberg
