When Is Coffee Harvested in Mondulkiri? A Buyer’s Guide to Cambodia’s Coffee Season

Last updated: September 8, 2026

Coffee in Mondulkiri is generally harvested around the transition into Cambodia’s dry season. The strongest peer-reviewed field evidence from plantations around Sen Monorom reports that growers associated flowering with around March and harvest with around November, while the research team measured coffee yield in November and December. Other Cambodia coffee-industry references describe a broader harvest window extending roughly from October into January.

The safest conclusion is therefore not “Mondulkiri coffee is harvested on one fixed date.” It is: the main harvest is concentrated in the late-year dry-season transition, with timing varying by farm, elevation, planting material, rainfall, flowering, ripeness and harvest practice.

For the wider regional context, start with OCC’s Mondulkiri Coffee guide. This page focuses specifically on seasonality: what the harvest window means for farmers, processors, roasters and buyers.

The direct answer

Based on published evidence, a practical working calendar for Mondulkiri is:

• Flowering: often associated with around March in the studied Sen Monorom farms.
• Cherry development: through the wetter middle part of the year.
• Main harvest: often beginning around November.
• Broader commercial harvest window: approximately October to January in some industry references.
• Post-harvest processing and drying: continues after picking, so green coffee availability does not begin the same day cherries are harvested.

These dates are orientation points, not a promise for every farm or every crop year.

Why harvest timing matters

Harvest season is not trivia. It affects quality, labor, processing capacity, sample timing and commercial planning.

A buyer who knows when cherries are picked can ask better questions:

• Is this coffee from the current crop or older inventory?
• When was it processed and dried?
• When can representative samples realistically be available?
• Is the lot fully assembled or still being collected?
• How long has the green coffee been stored?
• Does the offered volume represent one harvest period or several collections?

For an emerging origin such as Cambodia, seasonal clarity builds buyer confidence because it connects the product to a real agricultural cycle.

What the peer-reviewed Mondulkiri study actually found

A 2021 study published in _Sustainability_ examined three Coffea canephora plantations in Senmonorom Municipality, Mondulkiri.

The study described a tropical highland environment with annual mean temperature around 22.9°C and annual rainfall around 2,203 mm for the study context. August had the highest reported rainfall, April the highest temperatures and January the lowest temperatures.

Most relevant to seasonality, the authors reported information collected from growers indicating that coffee flowering generally occurred in March near the end of the dry season and harvest occurred in November near the beginning of the dry season.

The researchers carried out yield measurements in November and December 2017.

This is strong evidence for the studied farms. It should not be inflated into a permanent calendar for every producer in Mondulkiri.

Why other sources give a wider October-to-January window

Agricultural harvests do not occur all at once.

An industry value-chain report discussing Mondulkiri described coffee harvest time as roughly October to January. Historical reporting from the province has also described farmers finishing harvest in December.

Those references do not necessarily conflict with the peer-reviewed study.

“Harvest begins in November” and “the harvest season spans October to January” can both be true when different farms, years, cherry maturities and collection periods are involved.

For buyers, the useful approach is to ask the supplier for the actual harvest dates of the offered lot, not simply copy a national calendar.

Why flowering influences the harvest calendar

Coffee cherry development begins long before harvest.

Flowering is strongly connected to seasonal water patterns. In many coffee systems, a dry period helps condition flower buds, while rainfall or renewed water availability can trigger synchronized flowering.

The Mondulkiri field study’s grower observations placed flowering around March, near the end of the dry season.

Once flowers develop into fruit, cherries need months to mature. Rainfall, temperature, shade, plant health, crop load and genetics can influence the pace and uniformity of ripening.

That means a change in flowering timing can shift harvest timing later in the same crop cycle.

Does every cherry ripen at the same time?

No.

Even on one tree, cherries can mature unevenly, especially when flowering occurred in multiple rounds.

This creates one of the biggest quality decisions at harvest: what gets picked together?

A quality-focused harvest should prioritize ripe cherries and minimize green, underripe, dried or damaged fruit where practical. Selective picking can require multiple passes through the same area.

If labor is limited or buyers reward volume more than quality, farmers may have an incentive to strip-pick a wider range of ripeness.

That decision directly affects the raw material entering the processing system.

Why ripeness matters for Fine Robusta

Fine Robusta is not created by species alone.

Coffea canephora can produce very different sensory results depending on cherry maturity and post-harvest handling. Underripe cherries can contribute green, astringent or harsh characteristics. Overripe or damaged fruit can increase unwanted fermentation or defect risk.

Selective harvest therefore becomes part of the quality system.

For a buyer evaluating Cambodian Fine Robusta, harvest questions should include:

• Was cherry ripeness measured or graded?
• Was selective picking used?
• Were floaters or damaged cherries removed?
• How many collection rounds were made?
• Were lots separated by date or producer?
• How quickly did cherries reach processing?

A score or tasting note without harvest context tells only part of the story.

What happens immediately after harvest?

Picking is the beginning of post-harvest work, not the end.

Depending on the process, cherries may be:

• sorted;
• floated;
• depulped;
• fermented;
• washed;
• dried whole;
• dried with mucilage;
• moved to raised beds, patios or mechanical drying systems;
• hulled later after reaching target moisture.

Each step takes time.

That means a coffee harvested in November may not become stable, export-ready green coffee immediately. Drying alone can take days or weeks depending on method, weather, bed depth and moisture conditions.

For buyers, “harvest month” and “green coffee ready date” should be treated as separate fields.

The dry-season transition can help—and create risk

Beginning harvest around the dry-season transition can support drying because rainfall may decrease compared with the wettest months.

But weather is never perfectly predictable.

Unexpected rain can slow drying, increase rewetting risk and create pressure on limited covered drying capacity. Very rapid drying can also create quality problems if it produces uneven moisture movement.

Good post-harvest systems therefore need more than sunshine. They need:

• clean drying surfaces;
• appropriate layer depth;
• regular turning;
• protection from rain and night moisture;
• moisture measurement;
• separation between lots;
• storage that prevents reabsorption of moisture and odors.

Seasonality creates an opportunity. Process control protects it.

When should buyers request samples?

There is no single universal date.

A sample sent too early may represent only an early-harvest portion rather than the final commercial lot. A sample sent too late may mean the most desirable coffee has already been committed.

For Mondulkiri, a sensible buyer workflow is to begin communication before the main harvest, then update information as coffee is collected, processed and stabilized.

The sequence can look like this:

Pre-harvest: discuss expected origin, producers, process, target quality and estimated volume.

Early harvest: review first cherry and processing information; do not assume final-lot consistency yet.

Post-processing: receive representative samples tied to defined lot identities.

Pre-contract: confirm sample-to-lot match, available volume, physical specifications, packaging and commercial terms.

This process is more reliable than asking “Do you have new crop?” without defining what new crop means.

What does “new crop” mean?

Coffee buyers often use “new crop” to describe coffee from the latest harvest season.

But the phrase can be vague.

A stronger description includes:

• harvest start/end dates;
• crop year;
• process completion date;
• storage start date;
• lot code;
• sample date.

For example, a coffee might have been harvested in late 2026, finished drying weeks later and sold internationally in 2027. Calling it simply “2027 coffee” could be confusing unless the crop convention is explained.

OCC recommends using explicit harvest information rather than relying only on a marketing year.

How fresh is green coffee after harvest?

Green coffee does not become stale on the same timescale as roasted coffee, but it does change during storage.

Quality can be affected by:

• initial moisture;
• water activity;
• temperature;
• humidity;
• packaging;
• warehouse odors;
• pests;
• time;
• repeated opening and handling.

A lot harvested recently can still be damaged by poor storage. An older lot can remain commercially useful if it was dried and stored well.

Therefore, harvest date is one quality signal—not the whole quality system.

Harvest season and roasted-coffee freshness are different

Consumers sometimes confuse harvest freshness with roast freshness.

A roasted bag may be very fresh because it was roasted last week even though the green coffee was harvested months earlier.

That can be completely normal.

For a retail bag, look primarily at roast date and storage. For a professional green-coffee purchase, crop and storage history become more important.

When a brand uses “fresh crop” language, it should be clear whether it means recently harvested green coffee or recently roasted coffee.

Does shade change harvest timing?

Shade can alter the microclimate around coffee trees, affecting light, temperature, soil moisture and plant development.

The Mondulkiri research compared shaded and unshaded conditions and investigated yield, fruit characteristics, ripeness and soil moisture.

It would be too simple to say “shade always makes coffee ripen later” based on one regional study. The effect depends on shade density, species, weather, competition for water and nutrients, and farm management.

For buyers, shade is useful farm information but should not be converted automatically into a harvest-date or quality claim.

Does elevation change the season?

Elevation can influence temperature and plant development, but Mondulkiri farms are not all planted at the same altitude.

The 2021 study’s selected plantations averaged around 700 meters above sea level. Other coffee areas in the province may differ.

Do not assume every Mondulkiri lot shares the same ripening schedule because the province is described as “highland.”

A more useful lot record includes the actual farm or collection elevation where known.

How climate variability can shift the calendar

Coffee calendars are biological patterns, not contractual deadlines.

Unusual rainfall, heat, drought stress, storms or irregular flowering can alter fruit development and harvest timing.

This matters especially because “Robusta is climate-resilient” is often oversimplified. Canephora may tolerate heat differently from Arabica, but heat tolerance does not mean immunity to water stress or unstable flowering.

For an emerging origin, annual harvest monitoring is more credible than repeating the same calendar indefinitely.

Why buyers should track the crop across several years

One harvest can show what is possible.

Several harvests show what is repeatable.

A buyer interested in Mondulkiri should track:

• flowering timing;
• harvest start and peak;
• rainfall anomalies;
• cherry ripeness;
• process choice;
• drying duration;
• green moisture/water activity where available;
• sensory results;
• volume;
• price and availability.

Over time, these records can reveal whether a producer or processing group is becoming more consistent.

That is more valuable than a single “best harvest month” claim.

What harvest information should appear on a retail bag?

Retail packaging does not need to become an agronomy report.

For premium Cambodian coffee, useful fields might include:

• origin: Mondulkiri, Cambodia;
• crop or harvest year;
• process;
• species;
• roast date;
• lot or batch code.

Deeper farm and harvest records can live on a product page or QR-linked traceability page.

A consumer should be able to understand the origin without reading a technical dossier.

What harvest information should a B2B buyer request?

A professional specification can go further:

• harvest start/end;
• collection dates for the lot;
• producer or collection group;
• cherry-selection method;
• process date;
• drying start/end;
• moisture and water activity;
• storage start date;
• bag/liner type;
• lot size;
• sample date;
• sensory evaluation date.

These fields help connect the physical coffee to the story being sold.

A practical Mondulkiri season timeline

The following is a working evidence-based framework, not a universal calendar:

Around March

Flowering has been reported around the end of the dry season in studied Sen Monorom farms.

Mid-year wet season

Fruit develops while rainfall and farm management influence plant water status and crop development.

October

Some industry references place the beginning of harvest activity around this period. Actual ripeness varies.

November

Peer-reviewed farmer observations identify November as the beginning of harvest in the studied farms. Research yield measurements were conducted in November and December.

December

Harvesting can continue, with historical farmer reporting describing completion around December in at least one case.

January

Some broader commercial references extend the harvest window into January, especially when farms or collection areas ripen later.

After harvest

Drying, hulling, sorting, storage, quality evaluation and lot preparation continue before coffee is ready for many commercial buyers.

Frequently asked questions

When is the main coffee harvest in Mondulkiri?

Published evidence points to harvest beginning around November in studied Sen Monorom farms, while broader references describe a window of roughly October to January.

Is all Mondulkiri coffee picked in November?

No. Farm conditions, flowering, ripeness, variety, elevation and weather can shift timing.

When does Mondulkiri coffee flower?

Growers in the 2021 field study generally associated flowering with around March near the end of the dry season.

When is new-crop green coffee available?

Availability follows harvest, processing, drying, stabilization, lot preparation and sampling. Buyers should ask for the specific lot schedule rather than assume availability immediately after picking.

Does later harvest mean better coffee?

No. Quality depends on ripeness and handling, not whether a cherry was picked earlier or later in the calendar.

Sources and verification notes

The primary seasonal reference is the peer-reviewed 2021 _Sustainability_ study on Coffea canephora plantations in Mondulkiri, which reported grower observations of flowering around March and harvest around November and conducted yield measurements in November and December 2017. A 2017 inclusive coffee value-chain report described a broader Mondulkiri harvest window from October to January. Historical local reporting has also documented December harvest activity.

These sources are useful but come from different years, farms and methods. OCC therefore presents the season as a range and recommends lot-specific verification rather than a fixed province-wide calendar.

Bottom line

Mondulkiri coffee is primarily a late-year harvest story, with November strongly supported by field evidence and a broader practical window that can extend from roughly October into January.

For consumers, that helps explain crop timing. For buyers, it is the beginning of a much more important workflow: connect harvest date to cherry ripeness, processing, drying, storage, lot identity and sample timing.

A mature origin is not defined by having one harvest month. It is defined by being able to show what happened from flowering to shipment.

Continue with OCC’s Mondulkiri Coffee guide for the broader regional evidence and quality context.