WHERE COFFEE IS GROWN ?
Coffee needs plenty of water, permanently moist air, a high temperature.
Therefore, coffee is found in the moist, hot regions of Africa, South America and Asia. In Africa coffee is grown mainly in forest regions.
WHAT VARIETIES OF COFFEE ARE GROWN IN INDIA ?
Arabica
These are small coffee trees.
In Africa they are grown only in mountain areas, for example, at Man, in Ivory Coast, at Dshang, Foumbot, in Cameroon.
They yield coffee of fairly good quality.
Robusta
These are also small coffee trees.
They are grown in many regions of Africa, for they grow well.
They yield coffee of fairly good quality.
WHY COFFEE IS GROWN ?
People grow coffee trees in order to sell coffee to foreign countries.
In certain countries of Europe people drink a lot of coffee, but the coffee tree does not grow in their own countries.
They buy coffee from Africa.
The countries of Africa earn a lot of money by selling their coffee.
With this money, they can build schools and dispensaries, they can make roads and modernize the country.
For several African countries (Ivory Coast, Uganda, Cameroon), coffee is an important export crop.
But there are many countries in the world which produce coffee.
Often there is too much coffee on the market and poor-quality coffee is difficult to sell.
Foreign countries buy
- good-quality coffee at a good price;
- they do not pay much for coffee of poor quality.
- The grower must produce good coffee beans.
- To produce coffee beans of good quality the grower must:
- choose his seeds and grow his seedlings carefully
- choose a good site for his plantation and prepare it well
- tend his plantation well and prune his coffee trees
- harvest the berries and prepare the beans properly.