Crop & market
Coffee Crop Calendar
Six origins, three crop-year conventions and harvest windows that barely overlap. Used deliberately, that is a scheduling advantage — a buyer working across the region can keep fresh crop arriving for most of the year.
Overview
Harvest at a glance
Each origin’s principal harvest window. Regional variation within a country is frequently larger than the difference between two countries, so the individual calendars carry the detail.
- Tanzania3 regional calendars · export august through to the following june, peaking october–march
Harvest
Jun–Oct and Jul–Dec and May–Aug
- Uganda4 regional calendars · export year-round, with the heaviest robusta shipments december–april
Harvest
Nov–Feb and Apr–Jul and Oct–Feb and Aug–Nov
- Kenya2 regional calendars · export december–june for main crop, with early-crop shipments from august
Harvest
Oct–Dec and May–Jul
- Ethiopia2 regional calendars · export december–august, with the freshest arrivals january–april
Harvest
Oct–Jan and Oct–Feb
- Rwanda1 regional calendar · export june–december
Harvest
Mar–Jul
- Burundi1 regional calendar · export june–december
Harvest
Mar–Jul
Stages
What each stage means
The same six stages are tracked for every origin, so the calendars can be read against each other.
- Flowering
- Blossom following the rains. Timing sets the harvest roughly seven to nine months later, so an erratic flowering shows up as a split or extended picking season.
- Cherry development
- Fruit fill and maturation on the tree. The period where drought, hail and pest pressure translate directly into outturn and screen distribution.
- Harvest
- Selective picking of ripe cherry. Peak weeks inside this window carry the best separations; the tails of the harvest are usually less consistent.
- Processing & drying
- Pulping, fermentation, washing or cherry drying, then drying to target moisture. Runs alongside and slightly beyond the harvest.
- Dry milling & grading
- Hulling, screening, density and colour sorting, and preparation to the contracted grade. Coffee usually rests in parchment before this step.
- Main export window
- The period in which fresh crop is realistically shippable. Arrival at destination follows by roughly three to eight weeks depending on routing.
Crop years
Three conventions, one region
Because the conventions differ, a contract should state the crop year explicitly rather than relying on the phrase “current crop”.
| Origin | Crop year commonly quoted | Harvest | Export window |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tanzania | Crop year commonly quoted July–June | June–October in the south; July–December in the north | August through to the following June, peaking October–March |
| Uganda | Crop year commonly quoted October–September | Robusta main crop November–February with a fly crop April–July; Elgon Arabica October–February | Year-round, with the heaviest Robusta shipments December–April |
| Kenya | Crop year commonly quoted October–September | Main crop October–December; early (fly) crop May–July | December–June for main crop, with early-crop shipments from August |
| Ethiopia | Crop year commonly quoted October–September | October–January, varying by region and altitude | December–August, with the freshest arrivals January–April |
| Rwanda | Crop year commonly quoted April–March | March–July, with the peak in April and May | June–December |
| Burundi | Crop year commonly quoted April–March | March–July | June–December |