Coffee Harvest in Gia Lai: What to Do on Your Farm Right Now

Gia Lai has more than 107,000 hectares of coffee, and most of it grows in the western part of the province around Pleiku. Farmers there have already started picking the first ripe cherries this November. In the main growing areas, the big picking should run from mid November to the end of December.

So the next six weeks decide most of your ani, the Tagalog word for harvest, and how much money it brings. After that, the dry season decides next year's crop.

What to do on your coffee farm right now

Here is the short list for a 2 hectare robusta farm in Pleiku this month. Each job has its own section below, with the reasons behind it.

1. Pick only ripe red cherries, in rounds, and never strip whole branches.
2. Start drying every batch within 24 hours of picking.
3. Guard the farm and the drying yard at night, because high prices bring theft.
4. Book your pickers and drying space now, before the main picking peaks.
5. Write down the picking dates and sack counts for each lot.
6. Plan water, pruning and fertilizer for the dry season before the harvest ends.

How to pick for the coffee harvest in Gia Lai

Good picking is the cheapest way to get a better price. Green cherries lower bean quality. Stripping or breaking branches also hurts the wood that bears next year's fruit. For that reason, the usual practice for Gia Lai coffee is hand picking in three rounds.

On 2 hectares, three picking rounds take many work days. We cannot give a fixed number of pickers, because it depends on tree age, spacing and crop load. Instead, count how many days your crew needed last season. Then book the same people early, since every farm around Pleiku is hiring at the same time.

Drying and storing the cherries

Start drying within 24 hours of picking. Cherries that sit in sacks heat up and ferment, and that spoils both the taste and the price. Spread the whole cherries thinly on a clean drying yard or on tarps, never on bare soil.

In steady sun, whole cherries need about 12 to 15 days to dry. Turn them about 4 times a day so they dry evenly. Once the beans are hard, bag them. Let them rest for 2 to 3 months before you hull or sell them.

Guard your farm during the ani

Coffee prices have stayed fairly high this season, and that brings theft. In fact, farmers across Gia Lai are fencing their gardens, locking gates, putting up cameras and building watch huts. Some households hire guards. Others join their neighbours in night patrols.

On a small farm, the drying yard is the weak point, because a full yard holds days of work in one place. Bring dry cherries under a roof at night, and keep a simple count of sacks going in and out. Our guide on farm inventory tracking shows an easy way to keep that count.

Plan the dry season: water, pruning and fertilizer

The dry season sets next year's flowering, and this one may be harsh. Early in 2026, the climate outlook said El Nino would likely form by mid year and last at least to the end of 2026. That forecast is now months old, so check the latest one for the Central Highlands. The last El Nino drought hit the region from December 2023 to April 2024. On many Gia Lai farms, about two thirds of the branches carried no cherries at all, and growers expected the next harvest to fall by 10 to 20 percent.

Water for flowering

After harvest, the first watering makes robusta flower, usually between January and March. If El Nino is confirmed, wells and ponds may run low just when you need them. So check your water source now, fix your pumps and pipes, and agree on watering turns with neighbours who share it. We have no verified amount of water per tree, so ask your district agricultural extension station for the local figure. Our page on planning around El Nino and La Nina has more drought steps.

Pruning and feeding after harvest

Once picking ends, cut out dead, broken and diseased branches, and clear away the last cherries. This cleanup costs only labor, and it removes the places where pests hide.

Trees need feeding after they carry a crop, but we will not give you a rate we could not check. As with any fertilizer for plants, the right amount depends on your soil, tree age and the size of this year's crop. So take a soil test after harvest and ask the extension station to read it with you. Also, compost the husks from hulling and spread them back under the trees as an organic fertilizer. It costs very little and returns part of what the cherries took out. See these examples of organic fertilizer for other cheap sources.

Pests to watch

Two pests often build up in the dry season: the coffee berry borer and mealybugs (rệp sáp). Clean picking is your first defence against the borer. For mealybugs, check the fruit clusters and the base of a few trees each week. We did not verify which active ingredients are registered for these pests in Vietnam. If you need to spray, use only a product registered for coffee in Vietnam, follow its label and keep to its harvest interval.

anee.io can hold this whole season in one place. Set each lot's day zero in the cropping calendar, then log picking dates, sacks, fertilizer stock and expenses as you go. If a branch looks sick, send a photo to Anee for a second look.