Coffee belt
Where and when coffee is harvested
Coffee grows between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn — in the “coffee belt”. The harvest moves in a wave: as Brazil finishes, Vietnam and Colombia begin. Slide through the months or play the whole year.
Novemberthis month
- main harvest
- second harvest
- off season
- land
Harvesting now: Vietnam, Colombia, Ethiopia, Uganda, India, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Tanzania, Kenya, El Salvador, Yemen.
Harvest calendar
Harvest months and the 2025/26 crop for the largest producers. Red is the main harvest, orange the second.
| Country | Species | Harvest, million bags | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | arabica and robusta | 63 | ||||||||||||
| Vietnam | robusta | 31.7 | ||||||||||||
| Colombia | arabica | 12.5 | ||||||||||||
| Indonesia | arabica and robusta | 12.4 | ||||||||||||
| Ethiopia | arabica | 11.6 | ||||||||||||
| Uganda | arabica and robusta | 7.1 | ||||||||||||
| India | arabica and robusta | 6.43 | ||||||||||||
| Honduras | arabica | 5.53 | ||||||||||||
| Peru | arabica | 4.76 | ||||||||||||
| Mexico | arabica | 4.08 | ||||||||||||
| Guatemala | arabica | 3.16 | ||||||||||||
| Nicaragua | arabica | 2.56 | ||||||||||||
| China (Yunnan) | arabica | 1.9 | ||||||||||||
| Tanzania | arabica and robusta | 1.45 | ||||||||||||
| Costa Rica | arabica | 1.16 | ||||||||||||
| Kenya | arabica | 0.85 | ||||||||||||
| Papua New Guinea | arabica | 0.8 | ||||||||||||
| El Salvador | arabica | 0.59 | ||||||||||||
| Rwanda | arabica | 0.35 | ||||||||||||
| Yemen | arabica | — |
The months are typical: the season shifts with weather and altitude, and in large countries regions harvest at different times. Crops are in 60 kg bags.
Sources (5)
- USDA FAS — Coffee: World Markets and Trade, July 2026 · 22.07.2026
- CONAB — Acompanhamento da Safra Brasileira, Café, setembro 2026 · 24.09.2026
- ICO — Country Coffee Profile: Vietnam · 03.2019
- Sucafina — origin pages · 03.11.2026
- Cafe Imports — origin pages · 03.11.2026
What is fresh on the shelf
Months pass between harvest and cup: processing, drying, resting the beans, shipping, roasting.
Months to the shelf
Between the harvest and the pack come drying, resting and sorting the beans, and the road. From Vietnam by sea to Vladivostok — 8–11 days; by rail to Moscow — 35–40 days.
Việt Nam News — Việt Nam has many opportunities to expand export in Russia · 11.04.2025
Green coffee ages slowly
Stored well, green coffee keeps a long time, yet it loses sugars and amino acids, and its taste flattens with time.
Selmar et al. — storage of green coffee (Annals of Botany, 2008) · 02.11.2007
Roasted coffee — weeks
At room temperature roasted beans go stale in 4–6 weeks, ground coffee in 2. That is why the roast date matters most on a pack.
IARC Monographs Vol. 116 — Drinking coffee, mate, and very hot beverages · 2018
What “new crop” means
Red on the map is where coffee is picked now. It reaches packs a few months later: Vietnam picks from October to January, Brazil from April to September.
Tạp chí Công Thương — Việt Nam bắt đầu mùa thu hoạch · 08.10.2024 · CONAB — Acompanhamento da Safra Brasileira, Café, setembro 2026 · 24.09.2026