I was sitting and drinking my cold brew coffee the other day, when I realized, I know very little about where in the world coffee is produced. I know somethings about how it is produced, processed and roasted, but not where. So, I decided to do some research and this is where coffee actually is produced.
There are many different countries where coffee is grown and harvested. However, some of these produce 10x or even 100x, 1000x more than the others. Which is pretty remarkable. The top producing countries are developing countries with cheap labor and high temperatures, but not too high. Also, the altitude matters a lot when it comes to coffee quality. But it does not always affect what quantities are grown. However, certain climates and altitudes produce different flavors, and the high demand for those sorts of coffee gives the economical possibility for growth in those regions. In other words, an increase in quantities grown.
As you can see, on the map below where I have highlighted the top-10 producing countries, South America is the top producing region. But also, Central America, Africa, and Asia are high quantity producing regions.
How Much Coffee Is Produced?
The world’s total coffee production is recorded to be somewhere around 8.5million tons (or 18.7billion pounds). The top-10 producing countries are alone producing over 7.5million tons of coffee (16.5billion pounds). That is equal to over 88% of the coffee production!
What’s even more mind blowing is that Brazil, the top producing country, is producing almost 2.6million tons alone (5.7billion pounds). That equals to 30% of the world’s total production. Brazil is not only the top producing country right now, but they have actually been that for 150years.
The top-10 coffee producing countries and their production:
- Brazil – 2.6million tons (5.73billion pounds)
- Vietnam – 1.65million tons (3.64billion pounds)
- Colombia – 0.81million tons (1.79billion pounds)
- Indonesia – 0.66million tons (1.46billion pounds)
- Ethiopia – 0.38million tons (0.84billion pounds)
- Honduras – 0.35million tons (0.77 billion pounds)
- India – 0.35million tons (0.77billion pounds)
- Uganda – 0.29million tons (0.64billion pounds)
- Mexico – 0.23million tons (0.51billion pounds)
- Guatemala – 0.2million tons (0.44billion pounds)
How Many People Work in Coffee Production?
Around 125million people depend on coffee for their livelihood. Most of these are poor workers, earning a couple of dollars a day. Even though it is hard to estimate exactly how many are working with coffee in different countries, we have some helpful statistics. This can give us, and hopefully also you, a clue about how enormous the coffee industry is in these countries:
- Brazil alone has over 300.000 coffee farms.
- 15million Ethiopians depend on coffee for a living.
- Colombia has over 500.000 individual producers.
- In Vietnam, coffee production employs about 6million people.
Summary – Where in The World Is Coffee Produced?
The top-10 coffee producing countries produce over 88% of the world’s coffee, and Brazil alone produces about 30%. The largest producing regions are South America, followed by Asia, Africa, and Central America.
In total, 125million people depend on coffee for their living and most of them are poor workers, working on smaller farms in developing countries.
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