Once the world's second-largest coffee producer, Venezuela now grows under 1% of the world total, mostly for domestic drinking. Andean highlands lead.
Between 1830 and 1930, coffee output in Venezuela's Andean frontier (Táchira, Mérida, Trujillo) grew about tenfold, making Venezuela the second-largest coffee-producing nation in the world, second only to Brazil. Coffee and cacao together made up 75% of exports in 1919. Coffee shipped through the port of Maracaibo became known internationally as 'Maracaibo' coffee, a port trade name rather than a growing region. Decline followed poor agricultural practice and soil erosion in the 1920s, compounded by the rise of petroleum, and later 2003 government price controls that growers said made coffee uneconomic. Venezuela has since imported coffee, for example from Nicaragua. By 2001 it produced less than 1% of the world's coffee, and most of what it grows is drunk locally.
History
Andean coffee expansion from roughly 1830 to 1930 briefly made Venezuela the world's second-largest producer, trading internationally as 'Maracaibo' (via Lake Maracaibo's port) and 'Caracas' coffee. The 1920s oil boom drew investment away from agriculture, and the sector never recovered its former scale. Since 2003 price controls the sector has shrunk to a small crop, mostly drunk domestically.
Field notes
- i
Venezuela's coffee output rose about tenfold between 1830 and 1930, making it the second-largest coffee-producing nation, behind Brazil.
- ii
'Maracaibo' coffee is a port trade name. The coffee itself grew in the Táchira/Mérida Andean highlands and was shipped out via Lake Maracaibo.
- iii
By 2001, Venezuela produced less than 1% of the world's coffee, down from a peak near global second place.
Where it growsCoffee grows in the Coast Range and the western Andean region, with the historic core in the Andean frontier states of Táchira, Mérida and Trujillo.
In the cup, according to guides
- CleanCupMoreCoffees shipped as 'Maracaibo' are described as bright with a clean, crisp finish, though also somewhat less acidic than other Latin American coffees.
Regions of Venezuela
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Venezuela's main coffee-producing state for over two centuries. Coffee and pineapple remain its main revenues.
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Home to Venezuela's highest peaks and a preserved coffee-hacienda museum documenting the trade's history.
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Mountainous Andean state where coffee is among the main crops alongside sugarcane, corn, potatoes and bananas.
- Lara
Credited with about 22% of Venezuela's coffee output, grown in highlands that also produce potatoes and vegetables.
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A plains 'breadbasket' state whose mountainous northwest corner, around Biscucuy, grows coffee.
- Monagas
An eastern state where coffee is planted around the cool highland towns of Caripe and San Antonio in the Caripe massif.
Caripe
How it is usually processed
Sources · 1 Every sentence here was checked against a source we read. Taste notes are what guides describe, not promises about your bag. Last revised 2026-11-11. Some details here are less settled than others.
- Coffee production in Venezuela · Wikipedia