You may be considering investing in coffee farming, especially if you live in areas suitable for coffee farming, such as Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
Coffee is a widely consumed worldwide and largely traded commodity. Due to people's busy lifestyles, the demand for caffeine to pump up their day is increasing. Coffee is the leading go-to beverage to be energized and have a productive day.
Before investing in coffee farming and producing green coffee beans, we need to know about coffee production. Also, assessing coffee farm financial feasibility will help you decide if coffee farming can be a profitable venture for you. Let's evaluate the fundamental steps for coffee production presented below.
6 Fundamental Steps for Coffee Farming
We need to do the following activities for producing green coffee beans. These are the major consideration before investing in a coffee farm.
1. Identifying Land for Coffee Plants Cultivation
It is a must to plan how to kickstart your coffee farm venture. Decide whether you plan to rent or buy farmlands. Of course, buying the land would require a bulk capital expenditure; however, agricultural real estate will typically continue to appreciate its value over time. Renting would need a lease of contract for several years. You can also consider buying or renting existing farmlands to ensure having cash flow starting from Year 1.
You probably would like to do the planting on a staggered basis. It ensures that you don't expose too much investment in the first few years without return yet since it takes three years from planting to harvest.
2. Selecting Coffee Variety
Selecting which variety to cultivate is one of the significant factors to consider. Two primarily produced varieties are Arabica and Robusta, while the other less produce varieties are Liberica and Excelsa.
Arabica is used for specialty coffee due to its rich flavor and aroma. This variety thrives in high elevation with substantial rain. However, it needs more care than other varieties, making Arabica more costly to produce.
On the other hand, as its name suggests, Robusta is a robust and low-maintenance coffee variety. Robusta is not prone to coffee diseases due to its high caffeine, which serves as a natural insect repellent. This variety commands a lower price compares to Arabica.
3. Tree Care and Maintenance
As discussed above, two varieties are mainly produced worldwide -- Arabica and Robusta.
Arabica needs frequent pruning and tree care. Farm owners should ensure that the farm is frequently visited to monitor any diseases since Arabica is more prone to coffee diseases such as coffee rust. For Robusta, lesser maintenance is needed.
But whatever variety you are planting, ensure to provide tree care properly. And that includes weeding (or herbicide), fertilizer and pesticide application, and pruning. On average, tree care activities are scheduled every three months to produce good flowering and eventually abundant harvest.
4. Harvesting
Harvesting is mostly done through hand-picking, which requires enough workforce. Know in advance if you can hire enough workers during the harvest season in your target farm areas. Overripe coffee berries tend to fall from their branches, which can significantly reduce your harvest volume.
Since most farms are in high elevations, transporting the harvests can be difficult and require higher hauling costs. These costs must be taken into consideration.
Most producing countries have one harvest cycle a year except for Kenya and Colombia, which have two harvests per year – main harvest and fly harvest.
5. Drying
There are two methods to dry coffee: the dry method and the wet method. The dry method is the conventional way of coffee drying and the process used by small-scale coffee farmers. Coffee beans are laid out on flat grounds or drying beds. It takes seven days to dry using the dry method.
The wet method involves using a de-pulping machine to remove the outer skin and pulp. Washed and de-pulped beans are then dried for two days.
6. Milling
Coffee beans are milled before selling. Coffee hulling is the process of removing the outer skin, pulp, parchment, and silver skin. Polishing is to remove any silver skin left outside the bean, though this is an optional process. The milled grains can then be graded based on sizes and quality using different screen sizes to filter the beans or pick the defects by hand (which can be tedious).
Green coffee beans production can be a profitable venture if adequately managed and produces good quality beans. It is not complicated to do coffee farming and only needs as many workers during tree care (every quarter) and harvest season. Coffee farming can be a viable investment if you have the land and resources needed to start your coffee farm.