Ethiopia is the largest exporter of African coffee production. The country is responsible for harvesting and distributing 3% of the world’s overall coffee bean supply. Hence, the 2022 output was about four million bags of coffee beans. Uganda is the next leading exporter of coffee beans with almost $595 million in sales annually. Let’s analyze the overall outlook of African coffee production to see where it is going for 2023. The demand for coffee beans in Africa and worldwide is expected to increase over the coming decade. African coffee beans undergo dry processing, which is the most ancient way of harvesting and packaging coffee beans for shipment.
This natural processing method involves cleaning the coffee beans by hand and drying them under the sun.Harvesters turn the beans over every so often to ward off mildew growth. Sometimes it can take about a month for coffee beans to be fully ready for shipment.This age-old harvesting method will keep up with domestic demand and a continual strong standing when marketing the coffee beans to international buyers.Overall, African coffee production makes up 12% of the overall worldwide production of coffee beans. Ethiopia (39%) and Uganda (23%) account for 62% of coffee bean distribution. Cote d’Ivoire comes in third place, producing 13% of coffee beans in the nation.
Tanzania accounts for 6% of African coffee production. Kenya contributes another 5% of the workload. Plus, the rare peaberry coffee bean hails from these areas in Africa. Rather than two seeds in one coffee bean, peaberry coffee beans have one, which only happens in up to 10% of coffee cherries harvested worldwide. Most coffee farms, especially in East Africa, are much smaller than others based in Asia and even Latin America. This could be the reason why African coffee production only accounts for 12% of overall worldwide.Transportation costs are high to transfer coffee beans from local farms to interested buyers. Distance from the farm to buyer destinations is extremely long and there can be many torrential downpours along the way.
African coffee production continues to be what earns the nation high export funds. Since their prices are low, yet reasonable, investing in the African coffee industry supports local farmers’ livelihood. Unfortunately, while selling and growing coffee beans are lucrative for domestic and international buyers, it is not as successful for East African farmers. They usually earn under one dollar per day for their hard work. Some growth opportunities would be higher pay for African farmers who work tirelessly to produce a delicious coffee bean crop daily. Coffee growth in West Africa will soon face challenges as impending climate changes reported in September 2022 will eventually affect the coffee bean crop. The study from early 2022 stated that the climate may not be able to sustain the coffee bean crops by the time it is 2050. 
Another study from 2019 revealed that three-fifths of the coffee bean species are subject to extinction in the coming years because of deforestation, upcoming climate changes, and diseased crops. Of the 75 coffee species analyzed, scientists found that 22 are vulnerable to climate change without as much threat as the 13 highly endangered species. Amongst the highly endangered species of coffee beans is coffee arabica. The remaining 40 species in the study were classed on normal-level endangerment.
Reports have shown that Kenya may experience a 10% decrease in coffee bean production for the 2022-2023 season. However, the country did increase its coffee bean output in 2022 to 51,538 metric tonnes compared to the 34,000 generated in 2021.
