Brazil is by far the largest producer and the leading exporter of coffee in the world. Arabica makes up 85% of all cultivated species there. Introduced from French Guiana at the beginning of 18th century, the seedlings originally came from the Amsterdam Botanical Garden which had received a coffee-tree from Java in 1706.
Cameroon produces arabica and also robusta of the Java variety. The output of the Cameroon plantations are not always at their maximum, as food crops planted between the coffee trees absorb most of the nutrients and manure.
Originating in the Antilles via Venezuela, the first seedlings of coffee trees arrived on Colombian soil at the beginning of 19th century. Currently Colombia ensures 15 % of the world production of coffee. Nearly 3 billion arabica coffee trees, which grow in the shade of banana trees, allow these impressive results. Its customers are the principal industrialized countries: Germany, the United States and Japan.
The small republic of Costa Rica accepted its of coffee trees form the island of Cuba in 1779. It has been hoisted up to the rank of ninth largest world producer of coffee. Only arabica is cultivated in Cost Rica as the law prohibits the cultivation of robusta. The operations are often small farmers brought together in cooperatives, themselves gathered in a federation which governs exports. The high output of this formidable production, is one of best in the world, thanks to the use of very modern techniques.
The Ivory Coast is the principle African producer of coffee. The country cultivates robusta almost exclusively; growing arabica, for the moment, is in the experimental stages there. About half of the working population works in the coffee industry. But this first source of income for the country is greatly effected by periods of dryness and even drought. Moreover, the farmers sometimes prefer cacao to coffee, which requires less work and is often more profitable.
If coffee represents 60 % of all the exports of El Salvador, and employs 25 % of the country’s labor at harvest time, then the land reform operating in this country does not live up to all of it’s anticipated results. El Salvador has however the honorable place of 6th largest exporter to the American market, and of 14th, on the world market. El Salvador’s coffee trees, introduced from the Caribbean in 1740, are divided up today into diverse varieties: Bourbon, Typica, Pacas, some Arabigo, and also, a very new hybrid named Pacamara.
It was to replace the cacao-trees and the banana trees devastated by various diseases that the country developed the cultivation of coffee in 1920. Today the twelfth largest exporter of coffee, Ecuador primarily produces arabica. The harvesting of cherries is carried out in two passes in Ecuadorian plantations; the ripe fruits are gathered by hand, from June to August. The remainder is collected in a less precise way at the end of the season.
All the arabica of the world originated in Ethiopia, more precisely from the province of Kaffa from which the name ‘coffee’ itself was disseminated in many languages. Even if one cannot be certain of this precedence, there is no doubt that coffee trees grew wild in this region. Today, Ethiopia is the largest African producer of arabica, the second largest African producer of all species of coffee, after the Ivory Coast, and the 7th largest producer on the world market. All Ethiopian coffees are of a remarkable quality.
Introduced by the Jesuits in 1750, coffee was developed in Guatemala by the German immigrants at the end of 19th century. From then on, the small and mid-sized farms dominated the nation’s production. A quarter of the working population worked the coffee farms, whose harvest once represented 70% of all exports of the country. Today, this share falls to 32 %. Guatemala is still the 6th largest producer of coffee in the world. Among her cultivated varieties, the most notable are Arabigo, Bourbon, Typica and Maragogype.
This small state has the ambition to become the number one coffee producer of Central America. It is already 8th largest in world production. 175,000 hectares of farmland are reserved for the cultivation of coffee trees. This is slated to be augmented, so as to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country and increase the State contracts in American dollars. Honduras, which cultivates only arabicas, accepted its coffee trees from its neighbor El Salvador, and then from other countries such as Brazil, Costa Rica or Ethiopia.
India cultivates 25 % of the production of Asiatic coffee. It is second largest producer of the continent and the 8th world’s largest. Coffee does not represent, however, but 1 % of the country’s exports. The cultivated species are divided between the arabica, which are in decline there, and the robusta, which is now expanding. The specialty of the country is the ‘monsoonal’ coffee, a result of a too long gestation and over watering by storm. Certain consumers appreciate its quite particular perfume.
All of the plantations of arabica originated from the island of Java, introduced there by the Dutchmen in the 17th century, were destroyed in 1877 by Hemileia Vastatrix. From then on the production of coffee in Indonesia has been made up of 90 % robusta and 10 % arabica. Indonesia became a very large coffee producer, ensuring 7 % of the world supply! Number two in Asia, it is the principal world producer of robusta, and the 3rd largest producer of all other varieties.
Jamaica produces only arabica, primarily of the Typica variety. Blue Mountain has commanded world fame, but one also finds High Mountain Supreme and the Premium Washed Jamaica coffees enjoying broad markets as well. The production of coffee in Jamaica is not entirely intended for export. Jamaicans drink coffee and use a portion of their production to manufacture their local specialty, a liquor called Tia-Maria.
Kenya is one of the rare countries of Africa to produce arabica almost exclusively. It is the second largest of the African producers of arabica after Ethiopia. It is the 6th largest African producer of all coffees, and the 18th world producer. It should be noted that Kenya uses the most sophisticated methods of production, processing and marketing of its coffees.
The history of the Malagasy coffee is a dynamic one. In 1878, the arabica plantations were decimated by blight and were replaced by coffee trees of liberia and robusta. The first proved to be of bad quality, and the second suffered from a diminishing output. Since 1900, the species Kouillou of the Ivory Coast and robusta of Congo were introduced. They, too, suffer from the risk of the relatively frequent hurricanes, and of the weakness of the country’s infrastructure and roads.
All of the coffee trees in the Antilles were introduced in Mexico at the end of 18th century. If coffee currently represents one third of agricultural exports of the country, its production is placed at the 4th world rank. The coffee trees are cultivated in the southern half of the country, at altitudes ranging between 400 and 1700 meters. One finds Bourbon, Mundo Nuevo, Catura, and Maragogype. Notably Mexico has pioneered a very new variety, Garnica, conceived by the research station of the same name at the Institute of the coffee of Jalapa.
Introduced to Nicaragua in the middle of the 19th century, the coffee tree (316 million today!) is cultivated on thousands of farms of often modest size. The arabica produced are of Typica, Bourbon, Catura and Maragogype. Coffee production represents one of the third great exports of this small country, and makes Nicaragua the 12th leading producer of coffee in the world.
It is close to Lake Victoria, in what is currently Uganda, that in 1860 wild plants of robusta were discovered. The arabica species, produced there is exported almost exclusively to Germany and accounts for only 5 % of the national coffee production. The country exports robusta to Germany, the United States, Great Britain and France. Uganda is placed as the 7th largest world producer of coffee and the first largest exporter to the British Commonwealth.
Peru devotes approximately 6 % of its land to the cultivation of coffee trees. Plantations are found on the coast, in the mountains and especially in the shade of the Peruvian forest. In the future, the farming territories could be expanded, as there still remains a great deal of virgin land. If for Peru, coffee is the first agricultural export, the country is ranked only 17th most active producer. This lack of production is attributed to the political difficulties there which block the work of farmers even on their own ranches.
The Philippines produce predominately robusta, of the Canephora, Liberia, and Excelsa varieties, as well as a little arabica. This Excelsa, brought in 1740 by a Spanish Franciscan monk, was extremely well farmed but decimated in 1889 by Hemileia Vastatrix. The American administration introduced the other varieties then and, today, The Philippines are the 3rd largest Asian producer and 16th world producer.
Venezuela is ranked 20th world producer of coffee, but coffee constitutes the country's first agricultural export. The importance of this industry lies especially in its social aspect: coffee workers make up a strong percentage of the working population. The thriving coffee plantation slows down the exodus of farmers into the cities. The best coffees of the country are produced in the State of Tachira, the name most often found on Venezuela's exported coffees.
Vietnam is the 1st largest Asian producer of coffee and the 2nd world producer. The great fields of farm land created by the French colonists were replaced by cooperatives or farms run by the State. Once fertile fields of excellent quality, they have never recovered from the effects of chemical and traditional warfare. The economy which had great difficulty recovering from the devastation of war, currently suffers still from military dominance.