10 Top Coffee Producer Countries Worldwide

Who doesn’t know coffee? Coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world. This drink is made from Coffea sp. extract and was first made popular by Arabians then spread through the world by the Europeans. Today, there are more than 50 coffee producer countries in the world.

International Coffee Organization notes annual coffee production. We have four active kinds of coffee in the market today which are Arabica, robusta, liberica, and excelsa. About 99% of those are Arabica and robusta with 1% liberica and excelsa. Liberica and Excelsa have very low numbers so they are often ignored.

Coffee has been traded globally since the 17^th century. In the past, this commodity was placed second after oil in the most massive trade in the world. Even though that’s not the thing now, coffee is still an important agriculture commodity. Here are the top ten countries that produce coffee in 2017:

1. Brazil

Brazil has been the world’s biggest coffee producer in the world since 1830. To this day, Brazil’s export market for coffee accumulated to be the 30% of the total coffee trade globally. Brazil is also the biggest Arabica coffee producer with 80% of coffee produced in Brazil being Arabica. In 2015/2016, Brazil produced 2.9 million tons of coffee, which is lower than the previous year’s 3 million tons.

2. Vietnam

Vietnam can be considered a new player in the coffee world but they’re already dominating at the second place. Coffee was brought to Vietnam by the French in the 19^th century. Coffee started to thrive in Vietnam after the end of the war in 1975 and peaked in the 1990s with 20-30% growth each year. The most produced coffee in Vietnam is robusta thus making Vietnam the world’s biggest robusta coffee producer. In 2015/2016, Vietnam produced 1.65 million tons of coffee beans, an improvement from the previous year’s 1.59 million tons.

3. Colombia

Coffee has flourished in Colombia since 1790 after being brought by European missionaries. Colombia has only started to export coffee in 1835 and has been one of the most important agriculture commodities in Colombia. In 2015, Colombia produced 840 thousand tons of coffee beans compared to the previous year’s 799 thousand tons.

4. Indonesia

In the 17^th century, Indonesia was the world’s biggest coffee producer. Famous with its Java Coffee, coffee came into Indonesia brought by the Dutch colonialists in 1669. The first generation of coffee in Indonesia was Arabica. Because of some disease attacks, it then changed to liberica then changed to robusta. To this day, robusta coffee makes up to 83% of total coffee production in Indonesia. In 2015/2016, Indonesia produced 691 thousand tons of coffee beans, an improvement from last year’s 660 thousand tons.

5. Ethiopia

Ethiopia is the origin country of Arabica coffee which then popularized by the Arabian traders. Coffee had been Ethiopia’s most important commodity for centuries. In 2015, Ethiopia produced 402 thousand tons of coffee beans.

6. India

Coffee first came into India in 1695 through spiritual travelers who came after their hajj in Mecca and Medina. This plant was developed in Chickmaglur, a mountain environment in Mysor. In 1840, the English also started their coffee plantations in India. 92% of India’s coffee production is centered in three provinces: Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamilnadu. Just like in Indonesia, India started off having Arabica coffee as their main production but now, robusta coffee dominates at 64%. In 2015/2016, India produced 350 thousand tons of coffee beans.

7. Honduras

Coffee had started to be developed in Honduras in 1804 from plants in the Caribbean. The starter seed in the Carribean was suspected to be from coffee plants in Martinique Island that was brought by the French from Netherlands. Until the 20^th century, the most important agriculture commodity in Honduras had been bananas. In the 21^st century, it’s now coffee. In 2015/2-16, Honduras produced 324 thousand tons of coffee beans.

8. Uganda

Uganda is the original habitat for robusta coffee. Other types of coffee like the Arabica have only been introduced in the 1990s. Coffee has been one of Uganda’s most important agriculture commodities since the 1980s. In 2015/2016, Uganda produced 240 thousand tons of coffee beans, a vast improvement from previous year’s 226.4 thousand tons.

9. Guatemala

Coffee started to develop in Guatemala in the 1850s. This commodity then quickly became guatemala’s export primadonna. More than 60% of coffee produced in Guatemala is for export purposes. In 2013, there was a disease attack for coffee plants in Guatemala causing destroyed and damaged 70-90% of coffee plants. In 2015/2016, Guatemala produced 198.6 thousand tons of coffee beans.

10. Peru

Last year, peru wasn’t in the top ten of world’s coffee producers but this year, peru got in and mexico got out of the list. In 2015/2016, peru produced 198 thousand tons of coffee beans, a vast improvement from previous year’s 173 thousand tons.