Of course, as with any sort of crop, the weather needs to be taken into account when coffee is harvested.

There was an interesting article in The Hindu Business Line recently, indicating that the South Indian farmers have already started fly picking, thanks to concerns about the weather.

What is fly picking?

It means to pluck the coffee berries that ripened early.

The picking was triggered by the period of heavy rains recently and the current sunny period at the time of writing this article mean that it’s a great time for fly picking.

The activity has started in the dry belts of coffee farms in South India.

It is expected that the picking of coffee in the higher regions will take place about 15-20 days later.

It is usual for some 10 per cent of coffee crops to be picked during this fly picking period.

The principle amount of coffee harvesting is done around the end of the calendar year (December and January).

This amounts to roughly 50-60% of the crop.

The final phase of stripping the berries is finalised around about February.

This year, things might be affected a little bit by the weather conditions.

It seems that the experts are playing it by ear this time and will take stock of the position by the end of December.