What is a coffee plantation?

A coffee plantation is an area where coffee trees are grown for their fruit. The trees grow in the tropical lowlands of Central and Latin America, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. The trees are usually planted on a steep slope to minimize erosion, which makes up about 20% of the annual production cost. The first coffee plantations were established in Brazil by the Portuguese in 1723. They wanted to use this new product from Africa as a way to maintain a control over Portugal's foreign trade. Coffee became popular with European customs, with the first Dutch trading company selling it as early as 1610. Nowadays, there are over 30 million people employed in its production around the world and that number has been increasing every year since 1970. Coffee plantations are the source of livelihood of people in many countries. The harvesting process can take up to a couple of weeks, but the coffee beans are usually transported to nearby cities or towns, where it is then processed and sold. Cherry picking is a traditional part of coffee plantation that allows for better quality control when choosing the beans for processing. This selection is done using human eyesight but can be assisted through technology as well. The cherries are then processed using different methods, the most widely know being: the wet process and the natural process. Natural Processing: Coffee beans in this method are picked by hand, sun dried until they’re dry enough to be stored, then delivered to processing machines. The entire process takes a lot of time and effort, but it ensures that the resulting coffee doesn’t lose its natural flavor. Wet Processing: In this method, coffee is removed from the fruit and pulped by machine. This removes the hard fruit shell and a part of the pulp containing some skin and seed remains that give coffee its color as well as its flavor. Wet-processed coffees can be stored for longer periods than natural-processed ones because it has less. All these procedures take place at a coffee plantation! let me know if you want to know more about it below.