Harvesting and Processing Coffee Bean

Harvesting and Processing Coffee Bean

Far more is done on a coffee plantation than just growing and harvesting the fruit. When coffee cherries ripen, they must be picked almost immediately, not an easy thing to time when a single tree's fruit is in various stages of maturity simultaneously. In most arabica-growing areas the ripe cherries will be carefully hand-picked and dropped into the picker's basket, the weight of which determines the picker's pay and, in areas of smoother terrain and shorter trees, can be as heavy as 100kg or 220lb by the end of the day. The same tree will be visited on several different days as more cherries ripen.

A harvester will "strip-pick" the entire tree when the majority of its cherries are ripe, by sliding his or her fingers down the branches, causing all the cherries, ripe or not, to fall to the ground. Alternatively, a large vehicle will be driven slowly down the row of coffee trees, and its revolving arms will knock the looser, and hopefully riper, fruit to the ground. Harvesting machines are used primarily in Brazil, where the immense, flat terrain of the large fazendas (estates) allows the trees to be planted in even, widely spaced rows.

If the fruit is on the ground, it must be raked up and "winnowed" by workers who, using large meshed hoops, fling the sweepings into the air several times; twigs, leaves, cherries and dust are tossed up high, and the worker, like a juggler, catches the cherries as the lighter weight materials are blown aside. A major problem with the hand-stripping and machine methods of harvesting is that many cherries are included which are not at a point of perfect ripeness; these under or overripe cherries must be removed by extra sorting or else they will lower the grading quality. All quality arabicas will be sorted several times, beginning with hand-sorting the cherries. This initial task of hand-sorting is often done by women and children.

 

[Close This Window]