Being the third most consumed beverage behind water and tea, coffee beans are high in demand in just about every city in the world. In fact, it has been a favorite drink for so many people for hundreds of years now. It comes in a variety of flavors and fragrances.
Over the years, machines and technology have helped improve the quality and protection of coffee beans. But believe it or not, the largest quantity of coffee is produced in countries that are quite surprising to many. That’s right! It’s not in the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Australia, or any of the other first-world countries.
Here are the top five largest coffee manufacturing countries in the world:
1. Brazil, 5,714,381,000 Pounds
Starting off the top of our list is without contention, the largest coffee producer that is Brazil. In 2016 alone, Brazil produced over 2,595,000 metric tons of coffee beans. And just last year in 2018, it produced a record high of 2,598,000 tonnes of this product.
As a matter of fact, Brazil has been producing this product for over 150 years going as far back as 1840. Some might even say that it’s also one of the if not the first-ever producer in the world. Most of Brazil’s coffee plantations are based in the South East where the climate is ideal for it.
São Paulo, Parana, Minas Gerais are the top three coffee-growing cities of Brazil, all of which are in the southeasternmost region of the country.
2. Vietnam, 3,637,627,000 Pounds
Coming in after Brazil is Vietnam with a total production of 1,650,000 tons of coffee per year. It has been a stable part of Vietnam for a very long time. The highly esteemed robusta coffee makes up about 96% of the production here.
Those who are familiar with Vietnam’s product know very well that the signature drink of the country is coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk. Even in spite of going under a hiatus after the Vietnam War, this product remained a large part of the nation’s economy followed by rice.
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3. Columbia, 1,785,744,000 Pounds
It may be third on the list, but Columbia is still one of the places that coffee lovers are infatuated with. The country is the second-largest producer of arabica coffee beans (followed by Brazil) which is a variety that we see quite a lot.
In the last decade, the change in climate did affect Colombia’s coffee production to a degree. Due to the hot temperatures, the appropriate temperature for coffee beans is being jeopardized. Just last year, the country produced around 864,000 metric tons of coffee.
4. Indonesia, 1,455,050,000 Pounds
In spite of the fourth on the list, the location and climate of Indonesia have helped it become the third-largest producer of robusta beans in the world. In the 2017/2018 crop year, Indonesia’s total coffee production, including robusta and arabica, was about 636,000 metric tons. Indonesia’s coffee industry consists of over 1.5 million independent smallholder farms and a couple of large-scale operations.
Indonesia favors quantity over quality since the climate is better suited for the production of lower-quality robusta beans. Despite this, however, Indonesia yields an ideal geographical location for coffee plantation, given that it’s near the equator and consists of several mountainous regions that are well suited for coffee production.
The Dutch colonists were the first to introduce coffee production to Indonesia and production, even after colonization, has continued ever since. There are over 1 million hectares of coffee plantations in Indonesia, with over 90% of the cropland being handled by small-scale producers.
5. Ethiopia, 846,575,000 Pounds
Lastly, there is Ethiopia which produces over 400,000 tons of coffee per year. It’s the home of the world’s most popular coffee beans, arabica. More than 28% of the country’s yearly exports are due to coffee and it’s been estimated that 15 million residents are associated with coffee production companies.
For over 1100 years, the beans over there have been documented to have a stimulating effect according to luckless farmers and herds that happened to eat them. Ever since the plant has been domesticated and since farming coffee and started, regional variants of the arabica bean have been developed, each with their own characteristic taste and name.
