| Coffee robusta accounts for
approximately for 40% of the coffee grown in the world.
Unlike coffea arabica, the robusta coffee plant doesn’t
need to grow at high altitudes – it can grow up to heights
of just 10 to 12 feet above sea level. Robusta plants are
hardier than arabica plants, are less susceptible to problems
related to pests and rough handling, and the beans take just
11 months to mature. They also tend to yield more pounds of
finished coffee beans per acre, and at a lower cost of production
than arabica coffee plants.
| However, this doesn’t mean
that a blend of coffee containing robusta beans
is lower quality than pure arabica. Coffee blends
are designed to bring out the best balance of
different flavours. Robusta has a strong flavour
and is used to give body and a ‘kick’
to a coffee blend.
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| Conventionally producers
put coffee in 60kg sacks for export. However,
this is very labour intensive and drives up the
price, so we store it in 50kg bags, which are
loaded onto barges. These travel to Kinshasa Port,
where sacks are loaded onto wagons or truck containers
for dispatch to the International Port of Matadi.
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