Brazil. The coffee industry of Brazil, which has furnished seventy percent of the world's coffee during the last ten years, has developed in a century and a half. Brazilian soil first made the acquaintance of the coffee plant at Pará in 1723. A small export trade to Europe had developed by 1770, the year when the first plantation was established in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and from which the country's great industry really dates. Development at first was apparently slow, as no exports are recorded until the beginning of the nineteenth century; so that the history of Brazil's coffee trade is a matter entirely of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Once started, however, the new line of export made rapid progress. In 1800, the amount of coffee exported was 1720 pounds, contained in thirteen bags. Twenty years later, 12,896,000 pounds were shipped, the number of bags being 97,498. Ten years later, in 1830, this amount had increased to 64,051,000 pounds; and in 1840, to 137,300,000 pounds. In 1852–53, the receipts for shipment at the ports were double that amount, 284,592,000 pounds; in 1860–61 they were 420,420,000 pounds; in 1870–71 they had increased to 427,416,000 pounds; in 1880–81 they were 764,945,000 pounds; in 1890–91, 739,654,000 pounds; and at the beginning of this century, 1900–01, they were 1,504,424,000 pounds, having passed the one billion-pound mark in 1896–97. The highest point of coffee receipts in the country's history was reached in 1906–07 with 2,699,644,694 pounds; and since that year, the amount has staid at about one and one-half billion pounds. Further expansion in the last fifteen years has been closely regulated to prevent overproduction.

Exports of Coffee from the Coffee-Producing Countries of the World
CountryYearPoundsFive-Year Average
Pounds
South America:
Brazil19201,524,382,6501,469,949,180
Colombia1920190,961,953[c]172,862,121
Venezuela192073,726,632110,174,946
Guiana, Br.1917267,344257,152
Guiana, Fr.19181,100970
Guiana, D.19183,856923,644[d]
Ecuador19193,729,4135,843,033
Peru1919370,655455,212
Central America:
Salvador192082,864,66878,953,339
Nicaragua192015,345,39823,243,865
Costa Rica1921[a]29,401,68328,667,262
Guatemala192094,205,56988,213,080
Honduras19201,091,977646,574
Mexico191830,172,06547,555,514[d]
West Indies:
Haiti192061,970,694[e]54,308,959[d]
Dominican Republic19201,361,6663,497,866
Jamaica19198,246,6727,918,781
Porto Rico192129,967,879[f]30,033,471[d][f]
Trinidad & Tobago192073,20119,639
Martinique191810,35817,219
Guadeloupe19182,144,8551,594,146
Dutch East Indies192099,020,453103,701,297[h]
Pacific Islands:
Br. North Borneo19181,9846,618
New Caledonia19161,248,024784,176
New Hebrides1917625,224608,410[g]
Hawaii19214,979,121[f]4,244,479[d][f]
Réunion19183,52726,455
Asia:
Aden (Arabia)19219,463,10410,837,893
Br. India192030,526,83223,767,744
French Indo-China191879,145516,978
Africa:
Eritrea1918728,840315,698
Somaliland, Fr.191711,222,7369,321,930
Somaliland, Br.1918440,272233,908
Somaliland, It.19183,7473,306
Abyssinia191717,324,22312,744,406
German East Africa (former)19132,334,4502,649,047[d]
Br. East African Protectorate191818,735,5728,397,541
Uganda19189,999,8455,076,091
Nyasaland1918122,79692,593
Mayotte (including Comoro Is.)19143,306660
Madagascar1918707,676981,047
Angola191310,655,93410,459,724
Belgian Congo1919347,588186,432[h]
Fr. Equatorial Africa191648,06047,046
Nigeria19163,52719,180
Ivory Coast191866,35849,162
Gold Coast1917660220
French Guinea19181,3201,320
Spanish Guinea19188,1503,968[h]
St. Thomas & Prince's Is.1916484,3501,125,448
Liberia1917761,300
Cape Verde Islands19161,442,9101,100,095

[a] Crop year. Fiscal year. [c] Including small proportion of unhusked coffee. [d] Four-year average. [e] Not including 6,322,167 pounds "triage" or waste coffee. [f] Including shipments to continental United States. [g] Two-year average. [h] Three-year average. Java and Madura only

It is estimated that the area in the coffee-growing section suitable for coffee raising covers 1,158,000 square miles, or more than one-third the area of continental United States. The state of São Paulo is the chief producing state, and supplies practically half the world's annual output. Most of this São Paulo coffee is exported through the port of Santos, which is consequently the leading coffee port of the world. Besides Santos, the ports of Rio de Janeiro and Victoria are of much importance in the coffee trade, although some twenty or thirty million pounds are exported each year through the port of Bahia, and smaller amounts through various other ports. The crop year of Brazil runs from July 1 to June 30, the heaviest receipts for shipment coming as a rule in the months of August, September, and October of each year. One-third of the season's crop is usually received at ports of shipment before the last of October, sometimes as early as the latter part of September; one-half comes in by the middle or last of November; and two-thirds is usually received, by the end of January.

No. 1—Coffee Exports, 1850–1920

This diagram shows the exports of the principal coffee-producing countries, omitting Brazil