About Coffee: The Process: Harvesting

When coffee is ready for harvesting, the fruit turns a dark cherry color. This normally takes place 9 months after blossoming. There is usually only one harvest per year. North of the equator, the harvest takes place between September and March. South of the equator, the harvest usually takes place in April and May.

Equatorial countries harvest fruit all year round. Ripe fruits are picked with small rakes or brought down to earth with poles, and in some regions coffee is gathered by hand. Although technology makes it possible to harvest coffee with specialized machinery, manual harvesting is preferred because it produces a better product.

Machines cannot distinguish between a fully ripe coffee cherry and one that is not fully ripe. When machines are used to harvest, unripened green cherries are mixed into the crop, producing a coffee that is bitter. Selective picking allows the pickers to carefully choose only the fully ripened fruit. Although selective picking is more expensive, it produces the best result that is proven by its worldwide popularity.

During the harvest season, entire families— men, women and children— join in the work. On average, pickers can gather between 100 and 200 pounds of coffee cherries a day.