Origin guideSouth America
Peru Peruvian speciality coffee
Peru grows its coffee on the eastern slopes of the Andes, almost all of it on small family farms. It is one of the world’s biggest exporters of organic arabica, and a growing source of standout speciality lots.
The field notes
Peru at a glance
- Harvest
March – September, depending on the region
- Production
About 4.8 million 60 kg bags (2025/26)
- Main regions
Cajamarca · Amazonas · San Martín · Junín · Cusco
- Common varietals
Typica · Bourbon · Caturra · Pache · Catimor
Production figures: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service estimates for 2025/26, published July 2026.
When is it harvested, and how is it processed? See our guide to coffee harvesting and processing.
Chapter 01The story
History of coffee in Peru
Coffee arrived in Peru in the 1700s, but exports didn’t begin until the late 1800s. Around the same time, Peru settled debts to British lenders by handing over around two million hectares of land, some of which was planted with coffee.
In the first half of the 20th century, European owners gradually sold their Latin American holdings. In the 1950s and 1960s the Peruvian government encouraged coffee farming, and land increasingly passed to smallholders. By the 1970s, cooperatives were exporting 80% of the country’s coffee.
Chapter 02Change
Upheaval and growth
The collapse of the International Coffee Agreement’s quota system in 1989 hit Peruvian farmers hard, and the years that followed brought economic reform and rural violence, which eased after 1992. Coffee kept growing regardless: between 1995 and 2005 the area planted rose from 163,000 to 215,000 hectares.
Coffee leaf rust swept through Latin America from 2012, badly damaging the historic heartland of Chanchamayo in the central highlands. Since then, the balance has shifted north, and Amazonas and San Martín now produce around 47% of the country’s coffee.
Chapter 03Today
Coffee in Peru today
Peru’s coffee is grown overwhelmingly by smallholders, but only around 15–25% of them belong to a cooperative. Most coffee is fully washed and dried on tarpaulins, under roofs or, increasingly, on raised beds and in drying sheds, which give producers more control over quality.
Peru is also one of the largest exporters of organic arabica in the world.
Our Pachamama coffee is grown, harvested and processed by women producers. For every bag sold, we donate £1 to Women’s Aid.
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