Planting and harvest

Different growing areas, coffees and ways of preparation influence the taste of coffee.

The coffee tree grows to between 6 and 15 metres in height when left to grow naturally. Its height on a plantation is about 2 – 3 metres. The time to maturity from flower to cherry is 6 to 8 weeks. A coffee tree has to be 3 years old before it can be first harvested. The harvest can take up to 12 weeks (Northern hemisphere September to December, Southern hemisphere April to August).

There are different ways of harvesting coffee: “picking” (manually, more than once, labour intensive), “stripping” (manually stripped from the tree, quicker but small damage to the tree) and machine harvesting (faster, more damage to trees and cost of machines).

It takes a picker 20 to 30 minutes to harvest one tree. Per tree 5 to 8 kilograms coffee cherries can be harvested – which amounts to 1 to 2 kilos of roasted coffee.

Coffee harvest

No pesticides or fertilizers are used in organic coffees. That means there are no harmful substances in the coffee bean. The volume of harvested coffee beans is some 30% lower and cost of logistics is higher. This is the reason why organic coffees are more expensive than non-organic coffees.

An attractive option is “shade grown coffee”. This coffee grows in the shade of higher growing trees, which give shelter to birds which in turn eat more insects. This reduces the need for pesticides and fertilizers.