Liberian Coffee – Coffees of Liberia

The Republic of Liberia is located on Africa’s western coast and is bordered on the east by the Ivory Coast, on the north by Guinea, on the west by Sierra Leone and to the south is the Atlantic Ocean. The population of Liberia is about 3.5 million people.

Liberia is currently recovering from two civil wars that began with a military-led coup in 1980 resulting the death of hundreds of thousands of people and devastating the economy.

Both Robusta and Liberica coffee plant varietals are cultivated commercially in Liberia along the Atlantic coastal areas. The coffee generally serves to provide coffee beans for local consumption. In the past Liberia produced up to five percent of the world’s coffee supply.

Liberia Coffee Production

Coffee production, which reached as high as 10,000 metric tons, was primarily the Liberica varietal and declined due to the reduced demand for that varietal in favor of Robusta and Arabica.

Civil war reduced that to about 3,000 metric tons. Liberia then exported only Robusta coffee which is grown in several counties in northern and central Liberia.

Liberian Coffee continued:

Many former coffee farms are now wild coffee due to long periods of neglect (e.g., the civil war from 1991-2003) and forest coffee plants have reproduced spontaneously with coffee seedlings around the main plant.

Planting rubber trees is more profitable, as is cocoa, and these crops have drawn labor resources away from the rehabilitation of coffee farms.

Problems Hindering Increased Liberia Coffee Production

Various other difficulties hinder increased Liberia coffee production from infrastructure issues to lack of investment in coffee planting and processing technologies.

On the good side the long neglect of forest coffees revealed that the coffee plants grow well in the fertile soils without the need for chemical fertilizers, and that Robusta plants produce good yields under forest shade which also improves the quality of the organic coffee beans.

The climate of Liberia is generally a hot equatorial pattern with a distinct rainy season as well as a dry season known for its harsh harmattan winds.

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