Coffee
Cultivated in approximately 80 countries worldwide.
Each delicious mug of morning brew begins with a coffee tree, belonging to the genus Coffea. While there are many species belonging to the genus, only two are commercially important Coffea arabica and C. robusta L. (synonym is C. canephora), which together account for 80% and 20% of the world’s coffee respectively. Within each of these species are a number of different varieties.
The coffee industry is estimated to be worth more than US$100 billion globally (2015 estimate) and has been growing steadily for the past 50 years. To supply the 500 billion cups of coffee consumed annually, there are over 125 million farmers around the world producing coffee beans, 90% of which are in developing countries.
Brazil is the world’s leading coffee-producing nation, producing over 2.5 million metric tons of beans in 2016. Vietnam (1.6M), Colombia (810,000), Indonesia (660,000) and Ethiopia (384,000) round out the top five producing nations.