What two countries produce the most coffee in the world?
The answer is: Brazil and Vietnam. You may be surprised about one of these countries, but we all know that Brazil is a major coffee powerhouse! Vietnam – that’s the surprise. With these countries being the largest exporters of coffee how much would that be, you may be asking! – 2 million metric tons. Now that is a lot of coffee beans. That also translates to millions of individual cups of coffee and coffee related drinks.
Brazil
The world’s leading coffee producer is Brazil, as we who perform espresso machine reviews are very much aware of, and Brazil is responsible for almost a third of all the coffee produced worldwide. Very few people are aware of the fact that the coffee plant is not a natural plant of Brazil, the coffee plants of today were initially imported into the country centuries ago. When coffee plants were introduced to Brazil back in the 18th century it created a brand new industry, especially for the areas where the coffee plant was heavily grown. The city of So Paulo became the most populated city in Brazil due to a large number of immigrant workers employed by the coffee plantations. Over 19 million people live there.
Brazil’s dedication to coffee production is demonstrated by the 10,000 square miles of Brazil land mass used for the growth of coffee. This equates to over 6 billion coffee plants/trees. Brazil has been the world’s leading producer of coffee for the past 150 years, and at one point exported 90% of the world’s entire coffee supply. The question that needs to be answered is how much coffee does Brazil produce on any given year? The answer: 2 million metric tons of coffee was produced in 2007 alone! And that number increases every year. One would think that coffee production in the country of Brazil is controlled by Brazilian companies. This is not true as the two top companies that are responsible for a large percentage of Brazil’s coffee production are American.
Vietnam – South East Asia
Since the 1900s Vietnam has been growing and producing coffee. Very much like the country of Brazil the coffee plant was not indigenous to the country of Vietnam. As it should be suspected it was the French to introduce Vietnam to the coffee plant late in the 1850s, thus Vietnamese plantations have been growing this prosperous plant ever since. The only interruption to coffee production was during a short period during the Vietnam War. What is truly amazing is that Vietnam was the very first country to produce a manufacturing plant that made instant coffee. Pretty significant in the eyes of coffee aficionados as it changed the way coffee could be produced.
Vietnam’s top export is Rice, right behind Rice is coffee – which makes Vietnam the worlds second largest coffee exporter. Vietnam is the second leading worldwide producer of coffee, exporting over 1 million metric tons of coffee every single year. Unlike Brazil, where most of the coffee plantations are foreign owned, all Vietnamese coffee plantations are locally owned or owned by the government.
Most coffees grown in Vietnam are not readily available outside of Asia. Vietnamese coffee is considered some of the best coffee grown in the world due to its natural climate and seasonal weather patterns. Bun Ma Thut is a name that describes several types of coffee, named for the region in which they grow. The coffee is brewed in single serving cups and usually lightened with sweetened condensed milk.
While there may be other countries that grow and produce coffee these two countries are some of the largest coffee exporters to the United States, and the rest of the world. Most coffee lovers who truly think of themselves as coffee purist have sampled coffee beans from these two countries and understand all that went into the growing and nurturing of these coffee products from centuries of experience and expertise. More likely than not you have had a mixture of these beans in your ground coffee that is purchased at your local grocery store. The next time you pour yourself a hot cup of coffee or enjoy that delicate cup of espresso think of where the coffee beans used to make these drinks originated from – Brazil or Vietnam perhaps? We who research and put together espresso machine reviews for the general public actually learned quite a bit when putting together this article! Who knew Vietnam produced the first instant coffee? We surely didn’t!