While a great number of countries have tried their hand at cultivating coffee throughout history, only a select few have truly achieved success. Today, 49 countries around the globe grow coffee. This market is comprised of a vast number of individuals, including 25 million small coffee producers. Ironically, looking at a mass collection of data of world-leading coffee producers, coffee’s originating country of Ethiopia doesn’t lead in the production of their native coffee plant.
As of 2014, Ethiopia ranked fifth in the world for coffee production with some 390,090 tonnes of coffee produced, although it should be noted that they are the leading producer of coffee in Africa. Leading in production is Brazil with 2,715,028 tonnes of coffee – that’s 2.3 million more tonnes than Ethiopia! Coming in behind Brazil is Vietnam with 1,646,700 tonnes of coffee exported, Colombia with 694,540 tonnes, and Indonesia with 410,140 tonnes.
Beyond Ethiopia, other prominent countries involved in the production and export of coffee include India, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Honduras, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Thailand, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Kenya, and Venezuela. Each of these world-leading coffee exporters produced at least 45,000 tonnes of coffee in 2014!