Manual coffee collection
There are several ways to harvest coffee.
This is an extremely time-consuming task for the entire working population, including children.
An experienced professional picker can collect up to 70 kilograms of coffee fruits per working day.
The coffee picking season takes several months. Each coffee-producing country has its own.
For example, in Guatemala, coffee collection is stretched from August to May, on the island of Java & mdash; from May to December, in Cuba - from July to December, in Brazil & mdash; April to August, etc.
It is easier to collect robusta and liberica fruits: they do not crumble when overripe and therefore can dry on a tree.
Arabica is harvested in several steps as the fruit ripens, two weeks apart.
Typically, there are three such steps - preliminary, main and late.
This selective collection of fully ripened fruit ensures high quality coffee beans.
It is important for pickers to avoid overripe fruit, which can be easily detected by the black color of the berries. This leads to a decrease in the quality of the fruit and to their great loss due to shedding.
There is a method of harvesting coffee, in which a special comb with rare and flexible teeth is carried out along the branch.
In this case, mature fruits fall on the fabric spread under the tree, and leaves and unripe fruits remain on the branches.
Stripping
Stripping method (from English & laquo; to strip & raquo; & mdash; peel, strip, scrape, deprive of anything) is quite simple: they wait for the ripening of most of the berries and, holding the branch with their left hand, slide down it with their right, and tear everything off & mdash; flowers, green, mature and overripe black fruits, leaves, etc.
This is the most primitive method that gives poor results.
However, some countries in Africa and Brazil use it if they do not keep up with the harvest.
Picking
The most common and traditional method of collecting & mdash; picking (from English & laquo; to pick & raquo; & mdash; select, select, collect, pick).
The method is to pick only mature fruits selectively with great care.
This approach allows you to achieve a uniform harvest, but at the same time productivity is lost.
Mechanical Coffee Collection
The mechanical method consists in the use of various machines: machines with rotating vertical brushes, or vibrators attached to a tree trunk and producing vibration, from which ripe fruits fall to the ground.
This method is quite effective, but it often damages trees and tears off both fruits and leaves and flowers.
These machines are most often used in Brazil, where the climate allows fruits to ripen simultaneously and the harvesting process can be mechanized.