All About Coffee Part 52

1906 605,705 1907 541,300 1908 577,900 1909 673,350 1910 543,000 1911 601,600 1912 888,800 1913 972,000 1914 983,000 1915 1,074,600 1916 1,153,000 1917 1,093,000 1918 1,102,000

[Ill.u.s.tration: No. 3--BRAZIL'S COFFEE EXPORTS, 1850-1920

Diagram based on 5-year averages with quant.i.ties given in millions of pounds]

ECUADOR. Annual production in Ecuador runs from 3,000,000 to 8,000,000 pounds, most of which is exported. The greater part of the production is sent to Chile and the United States. Production has shown only a gradual increase since the middle of the nineteenth century, when planters began to give some attention to coffee cultivation. Exports were about 87,000 pounds in 1855; 296,000 pounds in 1870; and 985,000 pounds in 1877. By the beginning of the present century, production had reached 6,204,000 pounds; in 1905, it was estimated at 4,861,000 pounds; and in 1910, at 8,682,000 pounds. Exports in 1912 were 6,101,700 pounds; and 7,671,000 pounds in 1918; but there was a falling off to 3,729,000 pounds in 1919.

Several years ago it was estimated that the coffee trees numbered 8,000,000, planted on 32,000 acres.

PERU. Coffee is one of the minor products of Peru, and the country does not occupy a place of importance in the international coffee trade. The larger part of the production is apparently consumed in the country itself. Export figures indicate that the industry is steadily declining.

Exports amounted to 2,267,000 pounds in 1905; to 1,618,000 pounds in 1908; and in the five years ending with 1918, exports averaged only 529,000 pounds; while figures for 1919 show that in that year they fell still lower, to 370,000 pounds. Production is mainly in the coast lands.

BRITISH GUIANA. The Guianas are the site of the first coffee planting on the continent of South America; and according to some accounts, the first in the New World. The plants were brought first into Dutch Guiana, but there was no planting in what is now British Guiana (then a Dutch colony) until 1752. Twenty-six years later, 6,041,000 pounds were sent to Amsterdam from the two ports of Demarara and Berbice; and after the colony fell into the hands of the English in 1796, cultivation continued to increase. Exports amounted to 10,845,000 pounds in 1803; and to more than 22,000,000 pounds in 1810. Then there was a falling off, and the production in 1828 was 8,893,500 pounds and 3,308,000 pounds in 1836. In 1849 British Guiana exported only 109,600 pounds. For a long period thereafter there was little production, and practically no exportation; exports in 1907, for instance, amounting to only 160 pounds. With the next year, however, a revival of exportation began, and it has continued to grow since then. In 1908, exports were 88,700 pounds; and for the succeeding years, up to 1917, the following amounts are recorded: 1909, 96,952 pounds; 1910, 108,378 pounds; 1911, 136,420 pounds; 1912, 144,845 pounds; 1913, 89,376 pounds; 1914, 238,767 pounds; 1915, 172,326 pounds; 1916, 501,183 pounds; 1917, 267,344 pounds. In the last-named year 4,953 acres were in coffee plantations.

FRENCH GUIANA. This colony raises a small amount of coffee for local consumption, and exports a few hundred pounds; but it is really an importing and not an exporting colony. Coffee cultivation was never of much importance, although in 1775 some 72,000 pounds were exported. One hundred and eighty thousand pounds were harvested in 1860; and 132,000 pounds in 1870, mostly for local consumption.

DUTCH GUIANA. Regular s.h.i.+pments of coffee from Dutch Guiana have been made for two centuries, beginning--a few years after the plant was introduced--with a s.h.i.+pment of 6,461 pounds to the mother country in 1723. Seven years later, 472,000 pounds were s.h.i.+pped; and in 1732-33 exportation reached 1,232,000 pounds. Exports were averaging 16,900,000 pounds a year by 1760; and reached almost 20,600,000 pounds in 1777. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, they amounted to about 17,000,000 pounds; but a few years later fell off to some 7,000,000 pounds, where they remained until about 1840; after which they began again to decline. Exportation had practically ceased by 1875, only 1,420 pounds going out of the country, although cultivation still continued, as evidenced by a production of 82,357 pounds in that year. In 1890, production was only 15,736 pounds, and exports only 476 pounds; but since then there has been a considerable increase. In 1900, production amounted to 433,000 pounds, and exports to 424,000 pounds. In 1908, 1,108,000 pounds were grown, of which 310,000 pounds were sent abroad; and in 1909, the figures were 552,000 pounds produced and 405,000 pounds exported. No figures are available for production in recent years; but the exportation of 1,600,000 pounds in 1917 indicates that plantings have been steadily growing.

OTHER SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES. Of the other South American countries, Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay are coffee-importing countries; and the coffee-raising industry of Paraguay, although more or less promising, has yet to be developed. In Argentina, a few hundred acres in the sub-tropical provinces of the north have been planted to coffee; but coffee-growing will always necessarily remain a very minor industry.

Many attempts have been made to establish the industry in Paraguay, where favorable conditions obtain, but only a few planters have met with success. Their product has all been consumed locally. Bolivia has much land suitable for coffee raising; and it is estimated that production has reached as high as 1,500,000 pounds a year, but transportation conditions are such as to hold back development for an indefinite time.

Small amounts are now exported to Chile.

SALVADOR. Coffee was introduced into Salvador in 1852, and immediately began to spread over the country. Exports were valued at more than $100,000 in 1865; and by 1874-75 the amount exported had reached 8,500,000 pounds. The first large plantation was established in 1876; and since then planting has continued, until now practically all the available coffee land has been taken up. The area in plantations has been estimated at 166,000 acres, and the annual production at 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 pounds, of which some 5,000,000 pounds are consumed in the country. Since the beginning of the present century, exports have in general shown a considerable increase, the figures for 1901 being 50,101,000 pounds; for 1905, 64,480,000 pounds; for 1910, 62,764,000 pounds; for 1915, 67,130,000 pounds; and for 1920, 82,864,000 pounds.

GUATEMALA. Cultivation of coffee in Guatamala became of importance between 1860 and 1870. In 1860, exports were only about 140,000 pounds; by 1863, they had increased to about 1,800,000 pounds; and by 1870, to 7,590,000 pounds. In 1880-81, they amounted to 28,976,000 pounds; and in 1883-84, to 40,406,000 pounds. Twenty years later, they had doubled. In recent years, exports have ranged between 75,000,000 and 100,000,000 pounds; the years from 1909 to 1918 showing the following results, according to a consular report:

GUATEMALA'S COFFEE EXPORTS

_Cleaned_ _Unsh.e.l.led_ _Year_ (pounds) (pounds)

1900 92,639,800 23,654,600 1910 50,717,600 19,671,700 1911 60,689,500 20,959,500 1912 14,329,800 60,837,500 1913 70,749,100 20,980,700 1914 71,136,800 14,999,600 1915 69,649,500 9,892,000 1916 85,057,000 3,015,800 1917 89,259,600 1,410,200 1918 77,842,800 511,500

COSTA RICA. Coffee raising in Costa Rica dates from 1779, when the plant was introduced from Cuba. By 1845, the industry had grown sufficiently to permit an exportation of 7,823,000 pounds; and twenty years later, 11,143,000 pounds were s.h.i.+pped. Thereafter, production increased rapidly; so that in 1874, the total exports were 32,670,000 pounds, and in 1884 they were more than 36,000,000 pounds. In recent years, the average production has been around 35,000,000 pounds. For the crop years 1916-17 to 1920-21 exports have been:

COSTA RICA'S COFFEE EXPORTS

_Year_ _Pounds_

1916-17 27,044,550 1917-18 25,246,715 1918-19 30,784,184 1919-20 30,860,634 1920-21 29,401,683

NICARAGUA. Production of coffee in Nicaragua began between 1860 and 1870; and in 1875, the yield was estimated at 1,650,000 pounds. By 1879-80, this had increased to 3,579,000 pounds; and by 1889-90, to 8,533,000 pounds. In 1890-91 production was 11,540,000 pounds; and in 1907-08 it was estimated at more than 20,000,000 pounds. Ten years later, 25,000,000 pounds were produced; and the crop of 1918-19 was estimated at about 30,000,000 pounds. Lack of transportation, and excess of political troubles, have been important factors in holding back development.

HONDURAS. The coffee of Honduras is of very good quality; but production is small, and the country is not an important factor in international trade. Exports usually run less than 1,000,000 pounds. The chief obstacle to expansion is said to be lack of transportation facilities.

BRITISH HONDURAS. This colony grows a little coffee for its own use, but imports most of what it needs. Production had reached almost 50,000 pounds in 1904; but the present average is only about 10,000 pounds, raised on scattering trees over about 1,000 acres.

PANAMA. A small amount of coffee, of which occasionally as much as 200,000 or 250,000 pounds a year are exported, is raised in the uplands of Panama, or is gathered from wild trees. The industry is not of great importance, and the country imports considerable supplies, mostly from the United States.

MEXICO. A very good grade of coffee is produced in Mexico; and it is said that there is sufficient area of good coffee land to take care of the demand of the world outside of that supplied by Brazil. Production, however, is limited, and to a large extent goes to satisfy home needs, leaving only about 50,000,000 pounds for export. In spite of much government encouragement in past years, coffee cultivation has not made rapid progress, when we remember that the country became acquainted with the plant as early as 1790. Not until about 1870 did the country begin to become important in the list of coffee-exporters; but by 1878-79, s.h.i.+pments amounted to about 12,000,000 pounds. This steadily increased to 29,400,000 pounds in 1891-92. Exports in recent years have averaged about 50,000,000 pounds; but in 1918 were only 30,000,000. Production has fluctuated greatly. In the years preceding the troubled revolutionary period, the total output was estimated as follows: 1907, 45,000,000 pounds; 1908, 42,000,000 pounds; 1909, 81,000,000 pounds; 1910, 70,000,000 pounds. In the ten years preceding 1907, production dropped as low as 22,000,000 pounds in 1902; and rose to 88,500,000 pounds in 1905. Next to the United States, Germany was the chief buyer of Mexican coffee before the war; although France and Great Britain also took several million pounds each.

HAITI. For well over a century Haiti has been s.h.i.+pping tens of millions of pounds of coffee annually; and the product is the mainstay of the country's economic life. In all that time, however, s.h.i.+pments have maintained much the same level. The country has been a coffee producer from the early years of the eighteenth century, when the plants began to spread from the original sprigs in Guiana or Martinique. After half a century of growth, exports had risen to 88,360,000 pounds in 1789-90, a mark that has never again been reached. Since then, exports have ranged between 40,000,000 and 80,000,000 pounds, keeping close to the lower mark in recent years because of European conditions. They were 38,000,000 pounds in 1856; 55,750,000 pounds in 1866; and 52,300,000 pounds in 1876. They had reached 84,028,000 pounds in 1887-88; but fell back to 67,437,000 pounds in 1897-98; and ten years later, were 63,848,000 pounds. In 1917-18, they were only about two-thirds that amount, or 42,100,000 pounds. Some 8,000,000 pounds are consumed yearly in the country itself. The coffee plantations cover about 125,000 acres.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. Coffee production in the Dominican Republic ranges between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 pounds, exports in recent years averaging about 3,500,000 pounds. The quality of the coffee is good; but the plantations are not well cared for. Until fifty years ago, the industry was in a state of decline from a condition of former importance; but it was revived, and by 1881 it supplied 1,400,000 pounds for export. The amount was 1,480,000 pounds in 1888; 3,950,000 pounds in 1900; 1,540,000 pounds in 1909; and 4,870,000 pounds in 1919. Blight, and disturbed political conditions, have hampered development. In normal times, Europe takes most of the export.

JAMAICA. Jamaica began to raise coffee about 1730; and from that time on there was a steady but slow increase in production. s.h.i.+pments amounted to about 60,000 pounds in 1752, and to about 1,800,000 pounds in 1775.

At the beginning of the new century, in 1804, exports of 22,000,000 pounds are recorded; and in 1814 the figure was 34,045,000 pounds. Then exports gradually fell off, and in 1861 were only 6,700,000 pounds. They were 10,350,000 pounds in 1874; and since then, have not varied much from 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 pounds a year. They were 9,363,000 pounds in 1900; 7,885,000 pounds in 1909; and 8,246,000 pounds in 1919. The acreage in coffee remains fairly constant, being 24,865 in 1900; 22,275 in 1911; and 20,280 in 1917. It is said that there are 80,000 acres of good coffee land still uncultivated.

PORTO RICO. The cultivation of coffee in Porto Rico dates back to the middle of the eighteenth century; but exportation does not seem to have been much more than a million pounds a year until the first years of the nineteenth century. Between 1837 and 1840, the average exportation was about 10,000,000 pounds; and by 1865, this had risen to 24,000,000 pounds. Ten years later, it was 25,700,000 pounds. In recent years, it has averaged about 37,000,000 pounds; the 1921 figure, including s.h.i.+pments to continental United States, being 29,968,000 pounds.

Production since 1881 has been between 30,000,000 and 50,000,000 pounds; the heaviest being in 1896 when the total output was 62,628,337 pounds--the largest figure in the island's history. The industry was greatly damaged by a disastrous storm in 1900, and was also adversely affected by the European War, as a large part of Porto Rico's crop goes to Europe. Porto Rican coffee has not been popular in the United States, which takes only limited amounts. Cuba is one of the island's best customers.

GUADELOUPE. Coffee production in Guadeloupe reached its highest point in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when more than 8,000,000 pounds were raised. The figure was about 6,000,000 in 1808; but the output declined during the succeeding decades, and forty years later was only 375,000 pounds. The amount produced in 1885 was 986,000 pounds; and there has been a gradual increase, so that the crop has been large enough to permit the exportation of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 pounds, or more, since the beginning of the present century. Exports in 1901 were 1,449,000 pounds; in 1908, 2,266,000 pounds; and in 1918, 2,144,000 pounds.

OTHER WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. Some little coffee is gathered for home consumption in many other West Indian islands, but little is exported.

The island of Martinique, which is said to have seen the introduction of the coffee plant into the western hemisphere, does not now raise enough for its own use. Cuba was formerly one of the important centers of production; but for various reasons the industry declined, and for many years the country has imported most of its coffee supply. A century ago, the plantations numbered 2,067; and the annual exportation amounted to 50,000,000 pounds. When the island became independent, steps were taken to revive coffee planting; and in 1907 there were 1,411 plantations and 3,662,850 trees, producing 6,595,700 pounds of coffee. The Cubans, however, now find it convenient to obtain their coffee from the neighboring island of Porto Rico and from other sources; and importations have remained around 20,000,000 pounds a year. In Trinidad and Tobago, exports have reached as high as 1,000,000 pounds a year; but in recent times they have fallen off heavily. St. Vincent exported 485 pounds in 1917, and Grenada, 251 pounds in 1916. The Leeward Islands exported 1,415 pounds in 1917, and 2,946 pounds in 1916, the acreage being 274, the same as for many years past.

ARABIA. The home of the famous Mocha coffee still produces considerable quant.i.ties of that variety, although the output, comparatively speaking, is not large. The chief district is the vilayet of Yemen; and the product reaches the outside world mainly through the port of Aden, although before the war much of this coffee was exported through Hodeida. The port of Ma.s.sowah, in the last two or three years, has been drawing some of the supply of Mocha for export. No statistics are available to show the production of Mocha coffee; but an estimate made by the oldest coffee merchant in Aden places the average annual output at 45,000 bags of 176 pounds each, or 7,920,000 pounds. Although this is the only district in the world that can produce the particular grade of coffee known as Mocha, there is little systematic cultivation, and large areas of good coffee land are planted to other crops to provide food for the natives. When transportation facilities are provided, so that this food can be imported, it is predicted that the output of Mocha coffee will be doubled.

Aden is a great trans.h.i.+pping port for coffee from Asia and Africa, and more than half its exports are re-exports from points outside of Arabia.

The following figures will show the proportion of Arabian coffee coming into Aden for export as compared with that from other producing sections:

ADEN'S COFFEE RECEIPTS FOR RE-EXPORT

_Imports_ 1916-17 1917-18 1918-19 _from_ (pounds) (pounds) (pounds)

Abyssinia (via Jibuti) 4,529,280 6,174,896 4,337,760 Mocha and Ghizan 3,555,104 6,562,752 3,075,024 Somaliland (British) 394,128 396,592 245,840 Straits Settlements 672,224 Zanzibar and Pemba 92,512 795,312 764,288 All other countries 162,064 307,104 323,616 --------- ---------- --------- Total 9,405,312 14,236,656 8,746,528

BRITISH INDIA. Cultivation of coffee was begun systematically in India in 1840; and twenty years later, the country exported about 5,860,000 pounds. For the next eight years the exports remained at about that figure; but in 1859 they amounted to 11,690,000 pounds; and by 1864 they had doubled, rising in that year to 26,745,000 pounds. They have continued at between 20,000,000 and 60,000,000 pounds ever since, reaching their highest point in 1872 with 56,817,000 pounds. In recent years, production and exportation have declined; the exports in 1920 being only 30,526,832 pounds. The area under coffee has been between 200,000 and 300,000 acres for fifty years or more, reaching its highest point in 1896, with 303,944 acres. Recently the area has been slowly decreasing.

CEYLON. The island of Ceylon was formerly one of the important producers of coffee; and the industry was a flouris.h.i.+ng one until about 1869, when a disease appeared that in ten or fifteen years practically ruined the plantations. Production has gone on since then, but at a steadily declining rate. In late years, the island has not produced enough for its own use, and is now ranked as an importer rather than as an exporter. It is said that systematic cultivation was carried on in Ceylon by the Dutch as early as 1690; and s.h.i.+pments of 10,000 to 90,000 pounds a year were made all through the eighteenth century, exports in one year, 1741, going as high as 370,000 pounds. The English took the island in 1795, and thirty years later, they began to expand cultivation. Exports had risen to 12,400,000 pounds in 1836; and they continued to increase to a high point of 118,160,000 pounds in 1870; but in the next thirty years they declined, until they were only 1,147,000 pounds in 1900. The total acreage in coffee at one time reached as high as 340,000; but as the coffee trees were affected by the leaf disease, this land was turned to tea; and in 1917 there were only 810 acres left in coffee.

DUTCH EAST INDIES. The year 1699 saw the importation from the Malabar coast of India to Java of the coffee plants which were destined to be the progenitors of the tens of millions of trees that have made the Dutch East Indies famous for two hundred years. Twelve years afterward, the first trickle of the stream of coffee that has continued to flow ever since found its way from Java to Holland, in a s.h.i.+pment of 894 pounds. About 216,000 pounds were exported in 1721; and soon thereafter, s.h.i.+pments rose into the millions of pounds.

From 1721 to 1730 the Netherlands East India Co. marketed 25,048,000 pounds of Java coffee in Holland; and in the decade following, 36,845,000 pounds. s.h.i.+pments from Java continued at about the latter rate until the close of the century, although in the ten years 1771-80 they reached a total of 51,319,000 pounds. The total sales of Java coffee in Holland for the century were somewhat more than a quarter of a billion pounds, which represented pretty closely the amount produced.

With the beginning of the nineteenth century, coffee production soon became much heavier; and in 1825 Java exported, of her own production, some 36,500,000 pounds, besides 1,360,000 pounds brought from neighboring islands to which the cultivation had spread. In 1855, the amount was 168,100,000 pounds of Java coffee, and 4,080,000 pounds of coffee from the other islands. This is the highest record for the half-century following the beginning of the regular reports of exports in 1825. From 1875 to 1879 the average annual yield was 152,184,000 pounds. In 1900, production in Java was 84,184,000 pounds; in 1910, it was 31,552,000 pounds, and in 1915 it had jumped to 73,984,000 pounds.

On the west coast of Sumatra coffee was regularly cultivated, according to one account, as early as 1783; but it was not until about 1800, that exportation began, with about 270,000 pounds. By 1840, exports were averaging 11,000,000 to 12,250,000 pounds per year. Official records of production date from 1852, in which year the figures were 16,714,000 pounds. Five years later the recorded yield was 25,960,000 pounds, the high-water mark of Sumatra production. The total output in 1860 was 21,400,000 pounds; and 22,275,000 pounds in 1870. The average from 1875 to 1879 was 17,408,000 pounds; and from 1895 to 1899, it was 7,589,000 pounds. The yield was 5,576,000 pounds in 1900; 1,360,000 in 1910; and 7,752,000 in 1915.

In Celebes, the first plants were set out about 1750; but seventy years later production was only some 10,000 pounds. This soon increased to half a million pounds; and from 1835 to 1852 the yield ran between 340,000 and 1,768,000 pounds. From 1875 to 1879, production averaged 2,176,000 pounds; from 1885 to 1889, 2,747,000 pounds; and from 1895 to 1899, 707,000 pounds. In 1900, it was 680,000 pounds; in 1910, 272,000 pounds; and in 1915, 272,000 pounds.

Planting under government control, largely with forced labor, has been the special feature of coffee cultivation in the Dutch East Indies. At first the government exercised what was practically a monopoly; but private planting was more and more permitted; and in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the amount of coffee produced on private plantations exceeded that raised by the government. The government has now entirely given up the business of coffee production.

The total production of coffee in Java, Sumatra, and Celebes, in 1920, in piculs of 136 pounds, was as follows:

DUTCH EAST INDIES' COFFEE PRODUCTION

_Kind of_ _Quant.i.ty Produced in_ _Coffee_ Java Sumatra Celebes Total and Bali (piculs) (piculs) (piculs) (piculs) Liberica 14,972 6,243 2,074 23,289 Java 16,312 24,291 70,621 111,224 Robusta 411,235 256,645 4,998 672,878 ------- ------- ------ ------- Total 442,519 287,179 77,693 807,391

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. Trade in coffee is a trans.h.i.+pping trade, Singapore acting as a clearing center for large quant.i.ties of coffee from the neighboring islands. In 1920, the imports were 25,914,267 pounds; and the exports, 26,856,000 pounds.