World’s top 20 coffee producersWorld’s top 20 coffee producers

Map Creator: Louis Herman '20

This map shows the diverse and global history of coffee. Initially an Ethiopian crop, it soon spread to its neighbors, such as Tanzania and Uganda. Coffee cultivation in India started with Arab traders in the 17th century; from there it was spread to Indonesia by the Dutch. It boomed in the 18th and 19th centuries, originally introduced through colonialism, it became a powerful economic force in Latin America by the latter half of the 19th century. Similarly, European colonialism introduced coffee to Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea. The newest member of the coffee growing community is also the one that adopted the crop the most freely in the modern period; China began its cultivation largely on its own.