Where Do Your Coffee Beans Come From
By Marc Warren | November 18, 2008
Coffee is an international drink. There are few, if any, places you can travel where coffee is not an appreciated beverage. However, the tree itself is a bit prejudice about the type of environment in which it will produce. It only grows and produces well in the tropics.
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 liquid that a Turkish proverb calls 'black as hell, strong as death, sweet as love'. As a commodity, coffee - from beans grown in over 70 countries - is second only to oil in dollar volume.
Brazil remains by far the largest coffee bean producer with an average output of 28% of the total. Even world-renowned Colombia is a distant second at only 16%, with Indonesia less than half that at 7%. Mexico, the fourth largest producer is half again at 4%.
Part of the coffee trees prejudice is that it prefers areas of high altitude. That being said the tree has been acclimated to produce fairly well in other areas as well.
The harvesting of coffee beans in Brazil creates hundreds of jobs. There are many employees needed to care for the plants as well as harvest the beans. Because Columbia is a poorer country much of the harvesting done there is still quite primitive.
Can anything grow on a volcano? Coffee sure can. The Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii proves to the perfect location for coffee trees to thrive. The hot tropical sun and afternoon rains make for the perfect environment.
The islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in Indonesia produce a great deal of the world's coffee and have for many, many years. Like Columbia, their methods are primitive, but this does not hinder the growth of hundreds of acres of coffee trees or their production.
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 factor on the world market. Most are located in the south, in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas with the special Altura beans indicating their origin in the high altitudes.
Vietnam, once at almost a stand still in its harvesting of coffee is once again becoming a contender rivaling Indonesia for third place. Arabica trees, one of the two principle kinds of coffee plants, grow very well and are very common in this area of the world.
Topics: Food & Drink |
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