Coffee in Guatemala

Guatemala made its coffee regions famous. Its coffee association, Anacafé, says it was the first origin to profile its regions by climate and cup, and it still sells its coffee that way, from the volcanic valley of Antigua to the dry highlands of Huehuetenango and the rainforest of Cobán. Almost all of it is arabica, almost all of it grown under shade, and most of it high enough to be graded strictly hard bean.

The short version

• About 3.2 million bags a year, 98% arabica.
• Eight profiled regions, five of them volcanic.
• 98% shade-grown, in 261 of 340 municipalities.
• 81% strictly hard bean in 2024/25.
• Café Antigua, Guatemala’s first denomination of origin, now protected in the EU too.
• 42% of exports go to the United States.

How much coffee does Guatemala grow?

About 3.2 million bags. USDA’s figures, for a coffee year from October to September:

Coffee year	Arabica	Robusta	Total	Exports
2024/25	3.14 million	130,000	3.27 million	2.99 million
2025/26 (estimate)	3.03 million	130,000	3.16 million	2.98 million
2026/27 (forecast)	3.13 million	130,000	3.26 million	3.20 million

Source: USDA, April 2026.

The same report quotes its figures two ways, so watch the totals:

Figure	In the text	In the table
Production, 2026/27	3.13 million bags	3.26 million (3.13 million is arabica alone)
Production, 2024/25	3.14 million bags	3.27 million
Exports, 2026/27	2.88 million (summary) and 3.2 million (trade section)	3.20 million (2.88 million is green beans alone)

Yields are about 9.5 bags a hectare, from 345,000 hectares harvested.

The eight coffee regions

Anacafé’s profiles, converted from °F, inches and feet:

Region	Altitude	Rainfall	Temperature	Cup
Antigua	1,520–1,710 m	810–1,220 mm	18–22 °C	Elegant, well balanced, rich aroma, very sweet
Acatenango	1,310–1,980 m	1,220–1,830 mm	14–31 °C	Marked acidity, fragrant aroma, balanced body, clean lingering finish
Atitlán	1,520–1,710 m	1,830–2,340 mm	20–22 °C	Aromatic, bright citrus acidity, full body
Cobán	1,310–1,710 m	3,050–4,060 mm	15–20 °C	Fresh fruit, fine, well-balanced body, pleasant aroma
Fraijanes	1,370–1,830 m	1,520–3,050 mm	12–26 °C	Bright, persistent acidity, aromatic, defined body
Huehuetenango	1,520–1,980 m	1,220–1,420 mm	20–24 °C	Fine, intense acidity, full body, wine notes
Nuevo Oriente	1,310–1,710 m	1,830–2,030 mm	18–25 °C	Well balanced, full-bodied, chocolatey
San Marcos	1,310–1,830 m	4,060–5,080 mm	21–27 °C	Delicate floral notes, pronounced acidity, good body

Source: Anacafé, Guatemalan Coffees.

Five of the regions are volcanic and three are not; Huehuetenango is the highest and driest of the non-volcanic ones. Acatenango grows up to 2,000 metres under dense shade, with fresh ash from the Fuego volcano; 90% of Atitlán’s coffee grows on the slopes of the three volcanoes around Lake Atitlán, in the soil richest in organic matter of any volcanic region; Fraijanes gets ash from Pacaya, the most active volcano; and Nuevo Oriente, coffee country only since the 1950s, grows on old metamorphic rock.

Where is the most coffee grown?

The newest department figures, from the agriculture ministry in 2016, put San Marcos first with 16% of production, then Santa Rosa (15%), Suchitepéquez (9%), Huehuetenango and Chimaltenango (8% each), Alta Verapaz and Quetzaltenango (7% each) and Guatemala department (6%). Departments and Anacafé’s regions don’t line up exactly: Santa Rosa, for example, is not one of the eight named regions.

The coffee: shade, altitude and varieties

About 98% of Guatemala’s coffee grows under shade, USDA says, and it is mostly high-grown: in 2024/25, 81% of the crop was strictly hard bean, 11% hard bean, 2% prime and extra prime, and 1% robusta. Catimor and Caturra make up nearly half of plantings, followed by Catuaí, Sarchimor and Bourbon; about a third of the arabica has been replanted with rust-tolerant hybrids. Rust still bites: incidence reached 20% between January and March 2025, in an unusually wet, warm spell.

Who grows Guatemalan coffee?

Mostly small growers: 97% of producers, USDA says, harvesting about 17 bags of parchment coffee a hectare. Medium growers are 2.9% and large estates 0.1%. Coffee is grown in 261 of Guatemala’s 340 municipalities and made up 3.3% of GDP in 2025.

Where does Guatemalan coffee go?

Half to North America. In 2024/25 the United States took 1.2 million bags, 42%, followed by Japan (330,000), Canada (273,000) and Belgium (266,000), USDA says; Europe took 26% and Asia 20%. Exports earned US$1.28 billion, at more than US$300 a bag. Guatemalan coffee now ships in jute sacks printed with the jaguar logo of Guatemalan Coffees.

A short history

• About 1760: Jesuits planted Guatemala’s first coffee in their monastery in Antigua, according to the Café Antigua dossier submitted to the EU.
• 1850s–1860s: coffee began to replace cochineal, the red dye that made up 93% of exports in 1850, Wikipedia says.
• 1871: the Liberal Revolution brought the coffee planter Justo Rufino Barrios to power, and the state pushed coffee into new land.
• 1877: two decrees opened indigenous communal land to coffee and legalised debt peonage and forced labour drafts for the plantations.
• 1880: coffee was 92% of Guatemala’s exports, up from 1% in 1860.
• 20th century: Guatemala was Central America’s biggest producer until Honduras overtook it in 2011.
• 2008: Café Antigua became Guatemala’s first registered denomination of origin; the EU protected it in 2026.

How do Guatemalans drink their coffee?

Mostly instant, which makes up about two-thirds of the 900,000 bags Guatemalans drink a year, and is largely imported, USDA says, even as the country exports its best beans.

Guatemalan coffee and other origins

• Coffee in Honduras: the neighbour that overtook it in 2011.
• Coffee in Mexico: shade-grown coffee across the border in Chiapas.
• The atlas: Guatemala’s growing area on the map.