Growing coffee in Côte d’Ivoire
Does Côte d’Ivoire still grow coffee?
Yes, but far less than it did. In the 1970s Côte d'Ivoire was the world's third-biggest coffee producer; its robusta peaked at 380,000 tonnes in 2000. Civil war, ageing trees and the pull of cocoa cut it to 46,975 tonnes in 2023, before a 53.6% rebound in 2024. Almost all of it is natural-processed robusta, and most exports now go to other African countries.
At a glance
2026- Production
- 1.3m bags
- 2026/27 forecast, 60 kg bags
- World rank
- No. 16
- 0.7% of world output
- Species
- Robusta, with a little arabusta around Man
- Harvest
- Mostly August to January, by hand (Perfect Daily Grind)
- Growers
- 100,000–150,000 growers; more than 3,500 cooperatives (Tea & Coffee Trade Journal)
- Exports
- Green coffee mostly to Africa, about 80% to Algeria; soluble coffee to Burkina Faso, Senegal, Nigeria
- Main varieties
- Robusta, Arabusta
- Processing
- Natural
Production: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, Coffee: World Markets and Trade (July 2026). Other figures describe 2026 and come from the sources at the end of this page. Updated once a year.
Growing regions
All originsCôte d’Ivoire was once one of the world’s great coffee countries. In the 1970s only Brazil and Colombia grew more. Today, in the shadow of its cocoa, it grows a fraction of that, almost all of it natural-processed robusta from small farms in the humid lowlands, and sells most of it to other African countries, as green beans or as instant coffee made in Abidjan. Here’s how much, where, when and where it goes.
The short version
- Third in the world in the 1970s; 380,000 tonnes of robusta at the 2000 peak.
- 46,975 tonnes in 2023, up 53.6% in 2024.
- Natural robusta, picked by hand from about August to January.
- Arabusta, a robusta–arabica hybrid, around Man.
- Mostly sold in Africa, green or as instant coffee.
How much coffee does Côte d’Ivoire grow?
Much less than it used to, and the figures vary widely from year to year:
| Year | Production | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 380,000 t of robusta (peak) | Perfect Daily Grind |
| 2015 | 126,587 t | Ministry of the Economy portal |
| 2020 | 82,400 t | Coffee-Cocoa Council, via Tea & Coffee Trade Journal |
| 2021 | 61,300 t | Coffee-Cocoa Council, via Tea & Coffee Trade Journal |
| 2022 | 95,520 t (95,000 t in another report) | Coffee-Cocoa Council, via data.gouv.ci; Tea & Coffee Trade Journal |
| 2023 | 46,932–46,975 t (45,000 t in another report) | Coffee-Cocoa Council, via data.gouv.ci; Ministry of the Economy portal; Tea & Coffee Trade Journal |
| 2024 | Up 53.6% (about 72,150 t, by our calculation) | Ministry of the Economy portal |
USDA’s figures, in 60 kg bags of robusta, for a coffee year from October to September:
| Coffee year | Production |
|---|---|
| 2022/23 | 1.02 million |
| 2023/24 | 1.33 million |
| 2024/25 | 650,000 |
| 2025/26 (estimate) | 1.30 million |
| 2026/27 (forecast) | 1.30 million |
Source: USDA, July 2026.
The government blames the fall from 2015 to 2023 on poorly timed rains at flowering, too few improved seedlings, farmers’ finances and ageing trees; it adds that coffee is cyclical, a big crop often followed by a rest. Yields are about 300–350 kg a hectare, the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal says.
The Coffee-Cocoa Council’s figures, published on the government’s open-data portal, also give 371,429 hectares of coffee in 2023 (378,380 in 2022), exports of 51,916 tonnes (73,553 in 2022), of which 15,795 tonnes were processed before export, and a farmgate price of 786 CFA francs a kilo, up from 701.
Where is coffee grown in Côte d’Ivoire?
In the low, hot and humid south, east and west: the west, the east, the lower Sassandra and the middle Cavally, on monoculture farms of 0.5–10 hectares, the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal reports. Growing areas named by Perfect Daily Grind include Daloa, Gagnoa, Soubré, San Pedro, Sassandra, Man, Danané, Divo, Abengourou, Agboville, Dimbokro and Bongouanou. Most robusta grows at only 300–400 metres. The Coffee-Cocoa Council’s figures by region show the west dominating:
| Region | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|
| Tonkpi (Man) | 27,195 t | 13,665 t |
| Haut-Sassandra | 20,409 t | 10,464 t |
| Guémon | 20,163 t | 9,468 t |
| Cavally | 10,150 t | 4,332 t |
| Sud-Comoé | 2,885 t | 610 t |
| La Mé | 2,820 t | 1,486 t |
| Indénié-Djuablin | 2,372 t | 276 t |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 95,520 t | 46,932 t |
Source: Coffee-Cocoa Council, via data.gouv.ci.
The four western regions grew 81% of the coffee in 2023, by our calculation. The Council’s Daloa office, one of several regional delegations, marketed 1,637.5 tonnes of coffee in 2025-26, up 22.6%. An ICO project run with CNRA in 2005–06 identified four robusta terroirs by climate, soil and output: Abengourou (schist soils, 13% of national output), the Abidjan area (14%; Aboisso in the project’s summary table), Divo–Gagnoa (granite, 14%) and Man (mountainous, granite, 25%).
The coffee
Almost all of it is robusta, mostly natural-processed: inexpensive, strong, full-bodied and high in caffeine, the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal says. Quality has suffered from defects; in the Daloa delegation the share of acceptable beans rose from 84.6% to 89.6% in 2025-26. The exception is arabusta, a robusta–arabica hybrid grown in the mountains around Man, first cultivated in the 1960s because President Félix Houphouët-Boigny wanted a sweeter, milder coffee than robusta, and marketed as “presidential coffee”. Few farmers grow it now, because it is slow to bear.
When is coffee harvested in Côte d’Ivoire?
The trees flower almost all year, but most coffee is picked by hand between August and January, Perfect Daily Grind reports. The official marketing season for coffee and cocoa opened on 1 October in 2025.
Who grows Ivorian coffee?
About 100,000–150,000 growers, selling through more than 3,500 cooperatives or directly to buyers such as Nestlé, ofi and the Carré d’Or group, the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal reports. The government sets a guaranteed farmgate price each season:
| Season | Farmgate price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 1,700 CFA francs a kg of well-hulled coffee | KOACI |
| From September 2026 | 1,300 CFA francs a kg | Wakat Séra |
Many farmers have turned to cocoa, cashew and rubber instead.
Where does Ivorian coffee go?
Mostly to Africa. Between October 2023 and March 2024 Côte d’Ivoire exported 343,000 bags of green coffee, 82% of it to African buyers, and about 80% of its green coffee goes to Algeria, with about 14% to Spain, the Tea & Coffee Trade Journal reports. Its export price, about US$1.50 a kilo in 2023/24, was the lowest among African producers, the Inter-African Coffee Organisation found. Much of the rest becomes instant coffee: Nestlé freeze-dries robusta at a 9,000-tonne plant in Abidjan, and Ivorian soluble coffee goes mainly to Burkina Faso (31.4%), Senegal (29.8%) and Nigeria (14.2%).
A short history
- Late 19th century: coffee arrives soon after French colonisation, credited to the colonist Arthur Verdier; farmers first grow small amounts of liberica.
- Early 20th century: robusta arrives from Java and the Congo.
- 1945–1958: production grows from about 36,000 to 112,500 tonnes.
- 1960s: independence; arabusta is developed around Man.
- 1970s: the world’s third-largest coffee producer, after Brazil and Colombia.
- 2000: robusta output peaks at 380,000 tonnes.
- 2002–2011: two civil wars cut production sharply.
- 2023: production falls to 46,975 tonnes.
Source: Perfect Daily Grind, except 2023 (Ministry of the Economy portal).
Ivorian coffee and other origins
- Coffee in Uganda: Africa’s biggest robusta producer today.
- Coffee in Vietnam: the world’s biggest robusta grower.
- The atlas: Côte d’Ivoire’s growing areas on the map.