List of Coffee Producing Countries | Economic Geography

List of coffee producing countries:- 1. Brazil 2. Tropical American Producers 3. Countries of Africa and Asia.

Coffee Production in Brazil:

Brazil, where large-scale coffee culti­vation began only in the 1870s, once accounted for over 80 per cent of world production. Today, despite the increasing participation of many countries in trop­ical America, Africa and Asia in the world’s coffee trade, Brazil is still the leader in coffee production, supplying a fifth of the world’s coffee requirements.

Sao Paulo is the centre of the coffee trade and its outport, Santos, handles more coffee exports than any other port. What factors made the phenome­nal rise of the Brazilian coffee industry possible and will Brazil be able to maintain its leadership under modern conditions?

(a) Land:

In the early days of coffee-growing in Brazil vast areas of the interior remained under virgin forest. These could be quickly and cheaply cleared and prepared for coffee cultivation. When soil fertility in one area was exhausted, new areas were cleared; this wasteful practice was cheaper in the short term because profits were not reduced by the cost of fer­tilizing and rehabilitating the land.

The land around Sao Paulo and extending 400-560 km (250-350 miles) inland was ideal for coffee- growing. Conditions were better here than in most other parts of Brazil. The rolling plateau be­tween 300 and 915 metres (1,000 and 3,000 ft) in altitude is well-drained and sufficiently flat for the construction of roads, railways, fazendas, drying- grounds and for the use of machinery.

(b) Climate:

South-eastern Brazil has a warm, humid climate. The moderate temperatures of 14°—26°C (57°—78°F) in the uplands mean that shade is not absolutely essential and also discourage the spread of diseases. There is adequate rainfall of around 1 525 mm (60 inches) a year, and severe droughts are rare, though there is a long dry season.

The prevailing south-east trade winds from the South Atlantic Ocean blow on-shore. Near the Brazilian coast, they pass over the warm Brazilian Current and this gives rise to heavy mists which are beneficial to the coffee plants.

The dry season lasts for as long as five months, from May to September. During this period there is abun­dant sunshine and day temperatures range from 14° to 19°C (57°—67°F). The coffee berries begin to ripen by late April and picking starts in early May. The berries do not all ripen at the same time and it is there­fore important to have a long dry season.

Berries that do not ripen until August can still be gathered before climatic hazards, such as heavy rain or wet ground, can injure the beans. To avoid killing frosts, fazendas are usually located at some elevation, away from the cold valley bottoms.

Cold spells do occur in Sao Paulo state, but usually with a regular sixteen year cycle, e.g. in 1870,1886,1902,1918, and some precautions can be taken. The latest severe frost was in 1976. Severe droughts are very rare. One notable exception occurred in 1940—1 and reduced the coffee yield to only 25 per cent of the normal production.

(c) Soil:

South-eastern Brazil has a number of soil types, some of which are better for coffee production than others. The best is the terra roxa which is found in extensive areas of Sao Paulo state. It is a deep (some­times as much as 18 metres/60 ft), porous soil developed on volcanic rocks and is rich not only in mineral nutrients such as potash but also in humus.

It is reddish-purple in colour (roxa = purple in Portu­guese) and is well-known by coffee-growers for its fertility. Coffee grown on such soils remains produc­tive for thirty to sixty years without additional fer­tilization. Present yields could be greatly improved if fertilizers were used regularly before the soil was allowed to be completely exhausted.

Modern fertili­zation and conservation methods are only very slowly being introduced in Brazil where exploitation for a quick profit has always been the primary motive of farmers. Bad farming practice has been encouraged by the fazenda system.

(d) Labour and Land Tenure:

Most of the land in Brazil is owned by rich landowners; comparatively little land is in smallholdings. The agricultural labourers are not permanently settled on the land but move about from one estate or fazenda to another. The landowner first employs workers to clear and plant the land.

While preparing and planting the land and before the trees come into bearing, these workers may live on the land and may raise their own cash and subsistence crops such as beans, sugar-cane or maize between the young trees.

When the coffee trees come into production the owner sets up the necessary workshops and employs new labourers who live on the estate and grow subsistence crops on land that is not planted with coffee, especially the cooler, less well- drained valley floors. Because tenants are allowed to grow their own crops money wages are low and thus production costs are cheap.

Little attention is given to the soil and erosion is often rapid. When the soil is exhausted new estates are opened up and old ones are abandoned. This keeps tenants and landowners con­tinually on the move and gives them no real interest in or attachment to the land.

This in turn means that modern methods are only very slowly being adopted. Lack of real planning leads to over or under-production and hence to fluctuating profits and occasional fi­nancial disasters.

(e) Accessibility:

The wealth brought by coffee has enabled an intricate system of roads and railways to be developed, linking the fazendas with the export ports and cities, for coffee is essentially an export prod­uct. Railways climb the 760 metres (2,500 ft) high coastal escarpment bounding the Brazilian Plateau by specially constructed cables and rails. Tunnels and bridges overcome the barriers posed by the rugged relief of parts of the coffee country.

The three cities of the south-east, Sao Paulo, Santos and Rio de Janeiro, are the most prosperous in Brazil. Sao Paulo and San­tos, particularly, owe their rise to the great boom in

coffee production which Brazil has experienced.

(f) Problems of Coffee Production in Brazil:

Some of the problems of Brazil’s coffee industry are the result of the wasteful methods practised by the coffee-growers. The exploitation of the soil with no attempt to renew fertility or halt erosion is a short­sighted policy and cultivation is generally not well- regulated. The berries are stripped from the trees ripe or unripe, shade is not provided, and these factors, together with soil exhaustion make Brazilian coffee yields among the lowest.

Other problems stem from the speculative nature of development in Brazil. Coffee yields fluctuate markedly according to climatic conditions and thus production and prices also fluctuate. Every time the price of coffee is high there is a new wave of plantings by farmers who wish to make a quick profit.

When all the new plantings come into bearing a few years later there is a glut; surplus coffee has to be burnt and prices fall. The history of the Brazilian economy has been marked by a series of coffee crises caused by periods of over-production.

Between 1887 and 1896 there was great demand for coffee, especially from the United States, which had an average consumption of some 2 000 tonnes a day. Prices were high and more and more coffee estates were established. As these new estates came into bearing production rapidly increased.

From 1899 to 1901 production rose from 9 million sacks to 16 million sacks and by 1906 despite frosts in some areas, 20 million sacks were produced. At this time, how­ever, the total world demand for coffee was only 12 million sacks (N.B. 1 sack = 60 kg or 132 lb; 17 sacks = 1 tonne) and prices had fallen to below the cost of production. New plantings were prohibited by the government and a system of valorization was tried.

The government bought surplus stocks and stored them. Due to the fluctuation of coffee harvests, the good years are usually followed by poor ones and the government was able to sell its stocks. Similar pur­chases were made by the government in 1917, 1921 and 1922 when there were bumper crops followed by poor harvests and the government was even able to make a profit.

Finally the government established an ‘Institute for the Permanent Defence of Coffee’ which, by mani­pulating the amount of coffee released to world markets created an artificial shortage of coffee and thus maintained high prices.

But the prohibition of new planting was no longer in force and new estates continued to come into production. Bumper crops pushed production to nearly 30 million sacks and enormous quantities (almost 40 million sacks in ten years) of unsold coffee were burnt, but this could not prevent financial collapse.

The coffee defence policy created more problems than it solved, for while prices remained high, other producers were able to expand their production. These producers, such as Colombia and other Latin American countries, the West Indies and the East African countries were producers of the superior ‘mild’ coffee and thus presented very strong competition.

The situation was changed by the Second World War, which reduced the markets of all the pro­ducers and in 1941 the Inter-American Coffee Agreement was signed. This provided for co-operation between the Latin American producers and the U.S.A.—the chief consumer. In 1960 this agreement was enlarged to include African and other producers and became the International Coffee Agreement.

Since the war coffee production in Brazil has de­clined, partly because profits from coffee are smaller than before and partly because other crops are now grown on a speculative basis to raise quick profits. Cotton is the most popular substitute for coffee under the prevailing Brazilian climatic and soil conditions.

There is good world demand for cotton too. Other crops that the farmers now grow instead of, or with coffee are sugar-cane, groundnuts, maize, tobacco, oilseeds, bananas and citrus fruits. The total area under coffee dropped from 3.4 million hectares (8.5 million acres) in 1940 to only 2 million hectares (5 million acres) in 1964, and has continued to fluctuate since that time.

However in many areas, particularly where more modern methods are practised or in areas where smallholders predominate, coffee is no longer a mono- cultural crop. The importance of crop diversification has been realized.

On the other hand the introduction of modern methods and intensive cultivation on small estates has yet to gain general acceptance in Brazil and competing countries whose techniques are more advanced are continually eroding Brazil’s predominat­ing position in the world coffee market.

Much land in Parana and Sao Paulo states rendered non-productive by frosts in 1976 has not been replanted with coffee but with annual crops such as sugar-cane or soya beans which are easier to grow and less risky for the farmer. They also command a high price at the present time. Coffee is however increasingly grown further north in Minas Gerais.

Coffee Production in America:

After Brazil, Colombia is the most important producer, accounting for 13 per cent of the total or 588 000 tonnes. Cultivation techniques in Colombia are very different from those in Brazil. Estates are located be­tween 760 and 1 980 metres (2,500 and 6,500 ft) on the slopes of the Andes and are smaller than those of Brazil, being isolated from one another by either mountain ranges or forests.

The chief coffee centres are Medellin, Manizales and Tolima. Transportation from estates to the exporting ports is often a great problem, for the construction and maintenance of roads and railways are difficult and expensive in the mountains. Shade trees are grown and some measures are taken to prevent soil erosion. Harvesting is done more carefully and the berries are only picked when they are ripe.

In some areas, however, land too steep for cultivation has been cleared and has been badly eroded. Colombian coffee has an excellent flavour and fetches higher prices than Brazilian coffee. Small quantities of ‘mild’ Colombian coffee are blended with ‘Brazil’ coffees to produce the various commercial coffee brands.

Colombia produces 60 per cent of the world’s mild coffee and is very dependent upon the export earnings of the crop. Most of the exports go to the U.S.A. Monoculture of coffee in some areas is now being replaced by diversification into a number of basic food crops.

In other South American states coffee is grown both for export and for local consumption. It is usually cultivated on uplands in the same way as in Colombia. Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru are the chief producers.

In Central America coffee is the chief crop. The physical and climatic conditions, especially in the highlands with their rich volcanic soils, are well-suited to coffee cultivation. Annual rainfall is between 1 016 and 3 050 mm (40 and 120 inches) and there are al­ternate hot, rainy and cool, dry seasons as in Brazil.

The coffee trees are regularly pruned and the soils carefully tilled and manured and the coffee beans are of fairly high quality. Yields per hectare are also high- about twice as great as in Brazil. Amongst the Central American states, Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala are the most important.

Most of the West Indian islands produce some coffee, e.g. the Blue Mountain coffee of Jamaica, and conditions of moisture, temperature, soil, labor and market are generally good.

Coffee Production in the Countries of Africa and Asia:

Many countries in Africa and Asia produce considerable quantities of coffee and the Old World as a whole now accounts for over half the world total.

In some countries where coffee-growing has been long-established, the quality of the coffee surpasses that of ‘Brazils’. Old World coffee strains such as Java (grown in east Java and northern Sumatra, Indonesia) and Mocha (grown chiefly in Yemen) are highly priced and in great demand.

Some of the newer producers such as Kenya (around Nairobi), Uganda (on the up­lands above the Rift Valley lakes), and Angola also produce high quality arabica coffees, either on small­holdings or on estates and yields are high. India also grows coffee, chiefly on the eastern or interior slopes of the Western Ghats.

Since the war there has been a tremendous increase in production from West African states, especially those which were formerly French or Belgian colonies. In these states the coffee is produced on locally-owned smallholdings and is of the robusta or liberica varieties which are easily grown, low in price and in great demand for the production of ‘instant’ coffees.

Ivory Coast, now the world’s third greatest producer, Zaire and Cameroun, are the chief producers. Many Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, produce small quantities of coffee mostly for local consumption and Philippines has greatly increased its output during the 1970s.