Cuba

Coffee grown mostly in the Sierra Maestra under forest canopy, developed by French planters who fled Haiti.

Cuban coffee has been grown since the mid-18th century, and French colonists fleeing Haiti's revolution introduced improved plantation methods. Plantations flourished through the 19th century in the mountainous southeast, in what are now Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo provinces, and UNESCO inscribed 171 of them, grouped in seven zones, as a World Heritage Site in 2000. They could not compete with Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica and were gradually abandoned. Exports exceeded 20,000 metric tons a year in the mid-1950s, but output fell after the 1959 revolution, from 440,000 60-kg bags in 1989-90 to 7,000 in 2007-08, later recovering to about 100,000-130,000 bags a year. By the 21st century 92 percent of the country's coffee was grown in the Sierra Maestra, largely under forest canopy. The harvest runs from September to January.

History

Coffee has been grown in Cuba since the mid-18th century, and French colonists fleeing Haiti's revolution introduced improved methods. Plantations boomed through the 19th century in the mountainous southeast before Cuba lost ground to Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica. Production fell sharply after the 1959 revolution, to a low of 7,000 bags in 2007-08, and has since recovered to roughly 100,000-130,000 bags a year.