Coffee History

         
 

Coffee History

Coffee originated in Africa, in the Ethiopian region known as Kaffa. From Ethiopia, coffee was taken to Arabia and finally brought into Europe. Coffee houses started emerging in Europe in the mid-1600s first in Italy and later in England. Coffee reached America in 1607.

An important milestone in 1727 was the planting of coffee in Brazil, which is now the world’s dominant producer (at the beginning of the 1900s, Brazil produced 97% of the world’s coffee). In 1893, the coffee from Brazil was introduced into Kenya and Tanzania, not far from its place of origin in Ethiopia, 600 years prior, ending its transcontinental journey.

The first coffee in South Africa was planted in KwaZulu-Natal at a missionary station during the late 1880s. During the 1930s, experimental plantings were done at the old government research facilities in Rustenburg in the North West Province. Very few commercial plantations existed, but during
the 1950s some plantations were known to have existed north of the Magaliesberg near Silkaatsnek in the North West Province.

During this time, the first coffee in the Magoebaskloof region was planted and in 1963 coffee was planted on a commercial basis on the Grenshoek tea estate near Tzaneen, Limpopo Province. Little expansion of the industry occurred during the next few years, but high international prices during the 1970s linked with political imperatives of the time, forced the government to seriously consider coffee production.

Now a days Coffee is produced in more than 70 countries on five continents. There are the two major cultivated species of Coffee: Arabica (Coffea arabia) and Robusta (Cofea canephora). Arabica represents 70 % of global production while Robusta represents about 30 %.