Coffee in Ecuador

Ecuador grows both of the world’s main coffees: arabica in the southern Andes and on the coast, in Loja and Manabí, and robusta in the Amazon. In the 1980s it had about 347,000 hectares of coffee; since the 1990s the crop has collapsed, and Ecuador now imports beans to supply its own cafés and an instant-coffee industry that re-exports what it processes. At the same time, its high-grown arabica has built a name in speciality competitions. Here’s how much, where, when and why.

The short version

• Arabica and robusta, from sea level to over 2,000 metres.
• Manabí, Sucumbíos and Orellana grow the most; Loja grows the best-known arabica.
• A collapse: from about 347,000 hectares in the early 1980s to 23,494 planted in 2024.
• Southern arabica harvest from about May to September.
• Over 90% of exports are soluble coffee, much of it made from imported beans.
• A net importer: Ecuadorians drink more than 300,000 bags a year.

How much coffee does Ecuador grow?

The estimates are far apart, partly because Ecuador has no coffee census:

Measure	Figure	Source
Exports, 1985	1.81 million bags	Wikipedia
Production, 2021/22	261,000 bags (91,000 arabica, 170,000 robusta)	USDA attaché, 2022
Production, 2023	5,584 t (about 93,000 bags, by our calculation)	INEC, via Primicias
Production, 2024	5,465 t (about 91,000 bags, by our calculation)	INEC
Production, typical year	About 200,000 bags (2025); about 250,000 bags (2026)	Anecafé, via Expreso
Production, 2025/26	350,000 bags	USDA
Area planted, 2024	23,494 ha (18,533 ha harvested)	INEC
Area planted, 2022	About 60,000 ha (42,000 ha harvested)	USDA attaché, with MAG and Anecafé
Area, early 1980s	About 347,000 ha	USDA attaché

INEC’s harvested area fell by 11,368 hectares between 2022 and 2024, El Diario reported. Yields are low, about 5 quintales of green coffee a hectare by the agriculture ministry’s reckoning, against a regional average of about 25, Anecafé says. The government’s Coffee Reactivation Project, launched in 2025, aims to renew 20,000 hectares and raise output to 687,500 quintales a year.

Where is coffee grown in Ecuador?

In 23 of Ecuador’s 24 provinces, and even on the Galápagos Islands. INEC’s 2024 survey, by province:

Province	Region	Planted	Harvested	Production	Main coffee
Manabí	Coast	3,426 ha	3,050 ha	1,150 t	Arabica
Sucumbíos	Amazon	5,826 ha	4,781 ha	1,086 t	Robusta
Orellana	Amazon	3,554 ha	2,702 ha	700 t	Robusta
Loja	Sierra	2,225 ha	1,464 ha	507 t	Arabica
Napo	Amazon	832 ha	724 ha	449 t	Robusta
Pichincha	Sierra	2,580 ha	2,298 ha	419 t	Arabica and robusta
Zamora Chinchipe	Amazon	1,228 ha	718 ha	222 t	Arabica
Ecuador		23,494 ha	18,533 ha	5,465 t

Source: INEC, ESPAC 2024, including coffee grown alone and intercropped.

The Amazon has half of the coffee land and grew 2,532 tonnes in 2024, mostly robusta: 86% of Ecuador’s robusta is planted there, USDA says. Arabica grows on the coast, where Manabí produces two-thirds of the coastal crop, and in the highlands, in Loja, Pichincha, Imbabura and Carchi. Zamora Chinchipe is the exception in the Amazon: mountainous enough, at about 1,200 metres, for arabica.

The coffee

Ecuador grows both species, but the sources disagree on the mix:

Source	Arabica	Robusta
Anecafé, via Primicias (2025)	About 55%	About 45%
USDA attaché, 2021/22	About 35% (by our calculation)	About 65%

Robusta goes mainly to the soluble industry; arabica, sold as ground coffee, increasingly as speciality. USDA’s attaché classes Ecuadorian coffee by altitude: very high above 1,200 metres, high at 800–1,200 metres and standard below 800. The main speciality areas are Loja, Quito’s metropolitan district and Pichincha, Imbabura, and more recently Azuay, USDA says; Expreso adds Pallatanga, in Chimborazo, as a new speciality zone. Loja dominates the national Taza Dorada competition: in 2023 a Geisha from La Noria, grown at 2,050 metres, won with 91.50 points and sold for US$45 a pound. USDA dates the Taza Dorada to 2016, but 2023 was its 17th edition, Primicias reports. In October 2026 the National Assembly declared Loja Ecuador’s coffee capital; its coffee has been a protected denomination of origin, Lojano Café de Origen, since 2019.

When is coffee harvested in Ecuador?

The arabica of the southern provinces, Loja, Zamora Chinchipe and El Oro, is picked from about May to September. In 2026 the harvest began in the last week of May, three weeks late, and growers expected up to 40% less coffee after heavy rain, Expreso reported; they were also worried about the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, detected in all three provinces. No sourced national calendar for robusta was found. USDA’s coffee year for Ecuador runs from April to March.

Who grows Ecuadorian coffee?

About 70,000 farmers, USDA’s attaché said in 2022, on farms where units under 5 hectares hold 96% of the coffee land. Coffee is picked by hand, even robusta on over 90% of farms. Only 45% of arabica growers and 20% of robusta growers used fertiliser in 2021. The collapse began with the 1994 price crisis and a wave of pests, Expreso says; in the 1990s competition from new producers, then dollarisation in 2000, which raised costs, made Ecuadorian coffee uncompetitive, USDA adds.

Where does Ecuadorian coffee go?

Mostly abroad as instant coffee. Ecuador’s soluble plants can process more than a million bags a year; the largest company, El Café, accounted for 70% of Ecuador’s coffee exports in 2022, USDA says. Beans imported from Vietnam and Brazil, and more recently Colombia and Peru, enter under a temporary-import regime, are processed and re-exported. Ecuador exported coffee worth about US$145 million in 2024, more than 90% of it soluble, Anecafé says, but in the first quarter of 2025 exports fell to US$27.2 million and 2,400 tonnes, the lowest in four years, the Central Bank reported. Arabica exports rose from 16,711 bags in 2024 to 20,848 in 2025, Anecafé says. At home, Ecuadorians drank about 1 kg a person in 2025, up from 700 g five years earlier, more than 300,000 bags in all.

A short history

• 1860: coffee is introduced at Jipijapa, in Manabí, Wikipedia says.
• About 1905: after a fall in 1903, coffee recovers and exports to Europe begin from the port of Manta.
• 1935: exports reach 220,000 bags; 1985: 1.81 million.
• Early 1980s: about 347,000 hectares of coffee.
• 1994: a price crisis and pests start the collapse.
• 2000: dollarisation raises costs; the soluble industry turns to imported beans.
• 2019: Lojano Café de Origen becomes a denomination of origin.
• 2024: INEC counts 5,465 tonnes on 18,533 harvested hectares.
• 2026: Loja is declared Ecuador’s coffee capital.

Ecuadorian coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Peru: the neighbour to the south.
• Coffee in Colombia: the neighbour to the north.
• The atlas: Ecuador’s growing areas on the map.