Time for coffee and tea
Coffee Growing Countries
There are twenty different types of coffee species, but it is the Arabica and Robusta species that make up the bulk of the 16 billion pounds of coffee that are grown for consumption. Originally Arabica comes from the Ethiopia and Robusta from West Africa; nowadays of course coffee is grown in many different countries including Columbia, Indonesia and Costa Rica.
Of the 80 or so countries that produce coffee by far the biggest player is Brazil; this South American country contributes around 5.5 million pounds of coffee (2.5 million Kg) and represents around 35% of all coffee production per annum. Brazil is the largest grower of Arabica coffee and the second biggest producer of Robusta.
The next three biggest producers of coffee are Vietnam (0.8 million Kg; the largest grower of Robusta); and Indonesia and Columbia, who both produce around 0.68 million kilograms of coffee per annum. Therefore the worlds four biggest growers of coffee (Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Columbia) are responsible for over 64% of overall coffee production.
Other large players on the coffee market include Mexico, India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Peru, Guantanamo, Honduras, Costa Rica and the Ivory coast; these countries contribute from 0.3 to 0.1 million kilograms of coffee per year. Other substantial producers of coffee (less than one hundred thousand kg per annum) include the Philippines, El Salvador, Ecuador, Kenya, Madagascar, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
A coffee tree typically yields 2000 cherries per year of growth (4000 coffee beans) or about 0.454 kilograms by weight of roasted coffee. From the previous figures it is therefore possible to work out approximately how many coffee trees each country is growing.
For example Columbia produces 0.68 million kilograms of coffee per year; therefore 680,000 kg divided by 0.454 = 1,496,017. Therefore to produce this much coffee Columbia must grow around 1.5 million coffee trees.
As to be expected with two of the largest contributors of coffee production (Brazil and Columbia) South America is the continent that has by far the largest amount of land dedicated to coffee growth (~10,000,000 acres); this is followed by Asia (5.5 million acres); Africa (5.1 million acres) and Central/Northern America (4.7 million acres). In all it is estimated that over twenty million families owe their living to the coffee growth industry.