Knowing About Better Organic Coffee Beans

Two main species of coffee beans comprise almost ninety percent of the beans used in all the coffees of the world. This means that whatever it takes to grow the arabica (Coffea arabica) or robusta (Coffea canephora) plants, people are going to do so.

This includes growing them organically if they are included in a fair trade coffee program, no matter how difficult that might be. These are two very valuable crops, and there's always a market for them.

Different regions of the world will tend to feature fair trade certified coffees of different species, because the species grow best in slightly different conditions. Arabica needs higher altitudes and more shade, while robusta can grow in hotter climates and closer to sea level.

Robusta tends to be found more in central and western Africa, but also in Southeast Asia. In fact, in recent years, Vietnam has become the world's largest exporter of robusta, the only species it grows. A fair trade program working with growers in these parts of the world would deal mostly in robusta coffee beans.

Between the two coffee plants, it's the arabica that presents the greater challenge when it comes to producing certified organic coffee. With a plant that has greater susceptibility to pests, growing it without resorting to pesticides can be hard work.

But coffee beans from both arabica and robusta are so valuable in the world market that there will always be a market for them, and as long as fair trade principles are in place, it will always be worth growing either of them.

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