Coffee production in Paraguay facts for kids

Coffee has been grown in Paraguay for a long time, starting in the late 1800s. Back then, people knew about coffee farms near cities like Asunción and Limpio.

The Story of Coffee in Paraguay

Early Days of Coffee Farming

In 1889, Paraguay had many coffee trees, about 83,966! People thought that Paraguay's coffee could be as good as Brazil's. This was because both countries had similar soil and weather.

At first, coffee was grown in small amounts. Farmers only planted it in places where the soil and climate were just right.

Growing Bigger: Commercial Farms

It took some time for coffee farming to become a big business in Paraguay. Farmers first tried growing coffee on small test farms. Once these tests worked well, larger farms, called plantations, started up.

The Banco Agricola of Paraguay, which was a bank that helped farmers, played a big role. It gave money to government groups. These groups then gave coffee plants for free to farmers. This helped thousands of new coffee trees get planted.

Many of these new farms were in the mountains of Alto Paraguay, close to Asunción. On these farms, people usually planted between 1,500 and 2,000 coffee trees. Some very large farms had as many as 10,000 trees!

Coffee Farms in the North

New coffee farms also started in northern Paraguay in 1967. Most of the coffee grown there was used by people within Paraguay.

By the 1970s, the main places for growing coffee were the Amambay, Alto Parana, and Canindeyú areas.

Coffee Today

The most common type of coffee grown in Paraguay is called Coffea arabica. In 2006, Paraguay produced about 180 tons of this coffee. About 36 tons of it were sent to other countries.

By 2013, coffee production had grown to 382 tons. This coffee was grown on an area of about 69 hectares (which is about 170 acres). Even with this growth, Paraguay's coffee production is still very small compared to the rest of the world.