Coffee Producers

Coffee Bean Producers from Around The World

From its origins in Ethiopia, where the main coffee production is still from wild coffee tree forests, coffee consumption has spread throughout the world. But because of its requirement for ample sunshine and rain, the plants from which coffee beans are produced grow only in tropical or sub-tropical regions.

From a narrow band centered on the equator of around 23 degrees North to 25 degrees South comes all of the world's source of the brew that one Turkish proverb refers to as -- 'black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love'.

As a commodity, coffee from beans grown in over 70 different countries, is second only to oil in dollar volume.

The Worlds Top Coffee Producers ...

• Brazil remains by far the largest coffee producer with an average output of 28% of the total.
• Even world-renowned Colombia is a distant second in the coffee production stakes at only 16%.
• Indonesian coffee producers provide less than half that at 7%.
• Mexico, is the fourth largest coffee producer, but is half again at 4%.

Coffee trees produce the best beans in high altitudes but have adapted to a variety of areas.

In Brazil, the plantations cover huge areas and employ hundreds of workers to tend the plants.

In Colombia the rugged mountains and poor economic conditions mean transportation to processing centers is still largely carried out by mule or Jeep.

While Colombia has the tree-lined mountains, Hawaiian coffee producers plant on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano. The black volcanic ash is rocky, but perfect for the plants where the intense afternoon sun is softened by tropical clouds. Frequent island showers provide the ample rain needed.

Indonesia is composed of thousands of islands, where coffee has been produced since the Dutch colonists introduced it in the 17th century. Though other countries have greater technology, no one exceeds the helpful warm, damp micro-climates found here. Hundreds of one to two acre farms on the largest islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi combine to secure the country's third place coffee production position.

Coffee Plantations in Mexico, by contrast to Brazil, are primarily small farms but with over 100,000 of them the total still makes the country a serious coffee producer on the world market. Most farms are located in the south, in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas with the special Altura beans indicating their origin in the high altitudes.

Vietnamese coffee producers, in recent years, have rapidly been challenging Indonesia's position as the Tonkin area recovers from decades of stagnation. First planted with arabica trees in the mid-19th century by French missionaries, the small plantations now produce robusta, one of the two main types of plant.

So, Whether the Brazilian Liberdade, the Costa Rican La Fuente, the Indian Monsoon Malabar or the Tanzanian Peaberry, coffee producers from around the world continue to find eager consumers everywhere.