A typical coffee plant is an evergreen bush that grows 1.5 to 3 meters in height. It takes around 3 to 4 years for the plant to produce its first fruit, also known as a coffee cherry. The cherry is bright red and requires 6 to 9 months to fully ripen. At the large coffee plantations around the world, thousands upon thousands of these evergreens are planted to grow and prepare for the harvest.
Video of a walk around of a coffee plantation in Vietnam
Harvesting
Painting of a coffee harvestThe berries are usually picked by hand, but if the terrain is suitable, the picking process can be mechanized. The harvesting of the cherries is done either in mass, also known as strip picking, or individually, also called selective picking. Selective picking is much more labor intensive and therefore results in higher costs, yet only the ripest cherries are picked.
Video of harvesting Fair-Trade coffee
Video of Strip Picking by machine
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