Coffee regions

Certifications / Coffee regions / Organic coffee

Kenya producing more organic coffee

A recent article notes that more producers in central Kenya are turning to organic coffee in order to take advantage of price premiums. This is welcome news, as over the last 15 years or so, Kenya has been one of the heaviest users of pesticides on its export crops, with around 60% of its pesticide use on coffee (primarily the large estates). The FAO reports that in 2001 (last year full data is available) Kenya used 303 metric tons of insecticides on its crops (215 of which were nasty organophosphates) versus 153 in Ethiopia and 69 in Rwanda.

Inadequate training, sanitation, and protective gear meant workers and the environment suffered from contamination. Less than 1% of Kenya’s total agricultural area is now organic, but organic agriculture stakeholders have formed the Kenya Agriculture Organic Network to support the successful growth of the sector.

Coffee and the environment / Coffee regions

Coffee growing in Brazil’s Cerrado region

Coffee growing in Brazil, in brief:
Coffee was first planted in Brazil in the early 1700s. By the mid-1800s, Brazil was already the world’s #1 producer of coffee, a distinction it still holds today. However, it produces a great deal of low quality arabica, as well as quite a bit of robusta. With so much invested in the coffee market, Brazil was in trouble during the coffee crisis of the 1990s. It turned to increased technification (high-density sun coffee, chemicals, and mechanization) to increase productivity. About 70% of Brazil’s coffee is technified coffee, much to the detriment of the environment in many places.

There are three main growing regions in Brazil. Mogiana is along the border of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais states. Sul de Minas is a more hilly/mountainous region in southern Minas Gerais state.  Here, we will discuss coffee growing in the Brazil’s cerrado region, mainly in Minas Gerais, as it is a primary area where Brazil’s specialty coffees are grown.

The Brazilian Cerrado: A biodiversity hotspot
The cerrado, consisting of grassy savannah, scrub lands, and gallery forest, is found on the high, flat, central plateau of Brazil. It covers over 2 million square kilometers — three times the size of Texas. Portions extend into Bolivia and Paraguay, making it the largest woodland-savannah in South America, and the richest savannah in terms of biodiversity in the entire world.

The World Wildlife Fund states it plainly: “The biodiversity of cerrado is extraordinary.” Nearly 45% of the 10,000 plants species found in this region are found nowhere else on earth. Almost 20 of the 800 bird species are endemic, such as the critically endangered Blue-eyed Ground-Dove (Columbina cyanopis). There are numerous unique mammals, reptiles, and amphibians as well. The Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus), South America’s largest canid, is an iconic mammal of the cerrado.

Since the 1960s, vast areas of the cerrado have been destroyed. Over 40% of the original cerrado area has already been converted to agriculture (especially soy and sugar) and livestock (40 million cattle), with 67% of the land having been modified in some major way. The world demand for biofuels is now increasing agricultural conversion in the cerrado. Less than 2% of its region protected in national parks and conservation areas.

A recent article in the New York Times (Scientists are making Brazil’s savannah bloom), notes that the cerrado “has been transformed in less than a generation into Brazil’s grain belt, thanks to the discovery that soils could be made fertile by dousing them with phosphorus and lime.” Coffee has only been grown here for around 40 years, but the cerrado now supports around 3000 farms, mostly in small holdings.

Coffee growing in the cerrado
As indicated above, soil in the cerrado is quite lean, and requires fertilization. While organic fertilizer is used, non-organic nutrients are almost always necessary, and it is said that the soil in the cerrado must be “engineered” to grow coffee. Coffee production in this region is the most highly mechanized in the world, with little hand picking. The flat terrain lends itself to machine harvesting, as do the sharply defined wet and dry seasons, which result in most coffee trees ripening simultaneously. This synchronized ripening is further choreographed by targeted irrigation. Given the pronounced dry season, most farms in the cerrado are at least partially irrigated. Drip irrigation is very expensive, so pivot-arm irrigators (which are more wasteful) are frequently used.

Because the natural habitats of the cerrado have few trees, the whole concept of “shade coffee” is not applicable here — coffee is grown in the sun. Preserving biodiversity in the cerrado relies on setting aside areas of natural habitat.

Consumers will often read that Brazilian coffee farms have preserved natural areas on their property. For the most part, this doesn’t mean they have a commitment to the environment. The Brazilian Forest Code is a law that states that in certain areas, a proportion of the land must be permanently preserved for conservation of natural resources and wildlife. In the cerrado, the percentage is 35%.

A close friend of mine lives in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and is active in the bird conservation community, serving on the boards of several national bird organizations. Responding to my recent inquiry regarding the Forest Code, he wrote to me,

“[T]here is intense lobby to change the law to reduce these numbers and/or to allow other forms of compensation (such as: I destroy a virgin forest and buy some useless land *in another biome* and set aside to compensate for it). Also, farmers include everything in their reserve: useless land, land that is already set aside for permanent protection (such as water course margins and hilly slopes).

Unhappily, corruption is, let me make it clear, ***WIDESPREAD*** in Brazil, by far our biggest problem and the source of many others. Many people and companies do not obey the laws and [bribe] the inspectors.”

This lack of compliance is well documented. This is truly disturbing, for the amount of acreage set aside is critical. Unlike growing coffee in a rustic forest setting, which is similar enough to native habitat to support many insects, birds, and other animals, little if any of the fauna of the cerrado utilizes the densely planted fields of coffee. Coffee replaces the native vegetation of the cerrado, and does not in any way resemble the natural ecosystem, unlike shade grown forest coffee systems.

Currently covering around 160,000 hectares, coffee farms represent only a fraction of the agricultural landscape of the cerrado. Nonetheless, coffee growing is agent of habitat conversion in this unique ecosystem, offering fewer opportunities to preserve biodiversity than coffee growing in other regions.

Update (January 2026): This review paper in the journal Nature Conservation updates the dire situation of the destruction of the cerrado. It goes into excellent detail on the biodiversity of the area, which unique species are at risk, the extent and source of threats, impediments to conservation, etc.

Maned Wolf photo = World Wildlife Fund, UK.

Coffee regions

Papua New Guinea coffee

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the eastern half of a large island north of Australia and associated smaller islands. PNG is one of the least explored places left on earth, with dense rainforests, rugged mountains, and many diverse indigenous people (with over 800 languages spoken). PNG holds incredible biodiversity, with 60% of its estimated 11,000 plant species being endemic. Over half of its 762 bird species are also endemic.

Coffee is grown in the mountainous highlands regions of PNG, often at altitudes of over 1,500 m (5,000 ft). The highlands consist of a number of provinces, and much of the coffee is grown in the Eastern Highlands and Western Highlands provinces, more or less in the center of the country. About 70-85% of the coffee is produced by small holders in garden plots; 40% of the population of PNG derives income from coffee farming. There are also larger estates, often owned by Australian or European interests. Here are some of the familiar names in PNG coffee, and the provinces they are grown in:

Western Highlands — Sigri Estate, near Mount Hagen in the Waghi valley; Kalanga, also in the Waghi valley.

Eastern Highlands — Kimel Estate; Arokara Estate; Goroka Estate, near town of same name; Arona Estate; Purosa “estate,” really a co-op of about 2,600 farmers of the Highlands Organic Agriculture Co-operative Ltd (HOAC) in the Purosa/Okapa region.

Morobe Province — Primarily small holders.

Much of the coffee is grown organically, either passive or certified, especially that of small holders.

Some of the coffee stock in PNG came from Jamaica’s Blue Mountain region. Other types grown are the bourbon variety Arusha (Kenya/Tanzania), and the low-growing, higher yield Mundo Novo and caturra. These varied origins give PNG coffee its own character, which is different than that of the regions that surround it. Generally, it is not as earthy or leathery as other Indonesian coffees (although small holder sources may be a bit wilder, due to the hand-processing done in each village). It is a little lighter bodied, with the brightness of Central Americans, and also has a touch of the African mild fruitiness.

We will be presenting short reviews of several PNG coffees soon. The 2007 crop is being harvested, and there will be a “Pride of PNG” competition in October, so we will do further reviews when new coffees arrive at roasters.

I’ve had some PNGs I loved, and some I’ve hated. I think it’s really important to support PNG small holders and the incredible biodiversity there, so the C&C tasting panel is looking forward to bringing you these reviews and more information on their origins.

Coffee regions

Tanzanian coffee

It was over a year ago when I did an overview of coffee growing in Africa, and since then most of our African coffee discussions have been about Rwanda or Ethiopia. I’d like to focus on Tanzania, as a prelude to an upcoming review.

Tanzania grows both arabica (70%) and robusta. The majority of coffee is grown by small farmers, typically as one of several cash and subsistence crops; coffee is often grown under banana trees. Much of it is passive organic. The rest comes from nationalized estates that have been rehabilitated in recent years after much neglect. Coffee is a major crop in Tanzania and important to their economy.

Most arabicas are grown in the north, near the Kenyan border, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro and nearby Mt. Meru. They may be called Kilmanjaros, Moshis, or Arushas, and tend to be brighter and a little more acid.  Coffees called Mbeyas or Pares are arabicas grown in southern Tanzania, between the rift lakes of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyasa, and generally have more body.

In the early 1970s, coffee berry disease and coffee rust began to attack coffee crops in east Africa. The larger Tanzanian holders that could afford to do so used pesticides, which had little of the desired effect, but decreased biodiversity. Part of Tanzania’s is ambitious plan to improve coffee production involves replacing all their coffee trees to more disease-resistant types. This project has been going on for about ten years now, and millions of disease-resistant coffee plants have been planted. As many of these trees were very old, this was not as wasteful as it might seem, and if it helps prevent the use of pesticides, or other exploitation of the environment due to an inability for small holders to make a living growing coffee, than it is a worthwhile mission.

One more problem in the region is water. With snow caps on the mountains diminishing (global climate change is a factor), farmers are struggling with irrigation issues, especially at Kilamanjaro. Some of these issues are being addressed by various organizations. KILICAFE is the Association of Kilamanjaro Specialty Coffee Growers; they have a set of sustainable company standards which include some environmental and biodiversity standards. See their web site for photos of coffee farms in their various regions (they include farms outside the Kilamanjaro area). Because deforestation also contributes to a lack of rainfall, sustainable farming methods will — one expects — become more and more important to the Tanzanian coffee industry.

Tanzania is rich in biodiversity. Most of the familiar Serengeti National Park is in Tanzania, on the border and sharing some land with neighboring Kenya. The crescent-shaped mountain ranges extending from Meru and Kilamanjaro in the north to Mbeya in the south are known as the Eastern Arc, rich in endemic species (for example, 43 butterflies, 96 species of vertebrates, and 800 plants are found no place else on earth). Two new species of coffee have been found recently in the Eastern Arc, Coffea bridsoniae and C. kihansiensis. The Pare Mountains are part of the Eastern Arc.

Any discussion of Tanzania coffee would be incomplete without mentioning peaberries. The fruit of a coffee plant, known as a cherry, has two flat-sided coffee seeds (beans) inside. A peaberry is just a fused bean — a small, round bean with a cleft down the middle, caused by the lack of fertilization of only one of the two ovaries of the coffee flower.  Since about 5-10% of coffee cherries produce peaberries, why are so many Tanzanian coffees sold as peaberries?  Nobody is sure how this marketing niche began, but you can read an excellent essay, the Tanzanian Peaberry Mystery, at Coffee Review.

Read more about the history of the coffee industry over the last few decades at TechnoServe and an article about bird diversity in Tanzania at the African Bird Club web site.