Product Profile: Coffee Beans

Description: The coffee bean is actually the seed, or pit, of the round, red cherry fruit of a tropical evergreen shrub. The coffee shrub grows up to 15 feet in height, and its branches grow thick with broad, waxy green leaves. In addition to the claret red clusters of coffee cherries, each coffee branch offers an abundance of luxuriant, jasmine-scented flowers.

There are two major species of coffee that are grown for commercial use, Coffea robusta and Coffea arabica. Robusta grows at lower elevations, has a higher yield per plant, and is more disease resistant than its arabica relative. Robusta beans are noteworthy for their harsh, dirty flavor and abundant caffeine-twice as much caffeine, in fact, as is found in arabica beans. Relatively low costs of production make robustas favorite with North American canned, or "institutional," coffee roasters.

The arabica species, which grows best at higher elevations, is the source of all of the world's great coffees. While there is more poor-tasting arabica than robusta in the world, this is simply a result of the fact that monumentally more arabica is grown. About 75 percent of the world's total production is arabica; at most, 10 percent of that is actually of "specialty" quality.

Harvest: The harvest season for the coffee produced from Nigeria extends from November till March.

Locations: The states that cultivate Coffee beans in commercial quantity in Nigeria are Abia, Taraba, Kogi and Plateau State.

Specifications:

·         Type:                      Roasted Coffee

·         Moisture:               13% max.

·         Foreign matter:    1% max.

·         Black & broken:    5% max

·         Microbial content: Nil

Uses:

General Use: The single most popular use of coffee beans is their use in making coffee, one of the most popular beverages of present times. The versatility of coffee beans as a beverage enables them to be used in a variety of combinations, some of which include caffè lattes, cafe mochas, cappuccinos, frappuccinos and liqueur coffee among others. Apart from being used for making beverages, coffee beans have a number of less conventional uses. Ground coffee is a great odour neutralizer. If a power outage occurs, for example, and food in the freezer defrosts and spoils, fill a bowl with ground coffee and leave in the freezer overnight to remove any foul odours. Ground coffee can also be used to clean stain resistant surfaces. It has a mild and gentle abrasive element, smells fresh and is particularly good for ashtrays and greasy surfaces. 

Commercial Use: Coffee beans consist mostly of endosperm that contains 0.8 - 2.5 % caffeine, which is one of the main reasons the plants are cultivated. Coffee is one of the world's most widely consumed beverages, making coffee beans a major cash crop, and an important export product for some countries. There are numerous species of coffee plants, but two species are predominantly consumed. Coffea Arabica is the most commonly consumed coffee plant, followed by Coffea Robusta which accounts for approximately 25% to 40% of the global coffee crop.

Industrial Use: A recent industrial use of coffee is in its inclusion in a sun filter composition, adapted for application to the human skin, which comprises a coffee extract consisting of a coffee bean oil which does not contain water soluble extracts. Used in various compositions the said coffee bean oil has been found to have a high absorption capacity to filter light selectively in the wavelength range of 280 to 320 nm and a low absorption capacity to filter light in the range above 320 nm. 

Export market: The major buyers of coffee beans around the world are China and United State of America while the minor importers include Spain, South Korea, Turkey and Yemen.

Export Price: The FOB prices of shelled coffee beans range from USD300-500 /MT  or even more depending on quality and time of year.

Local price: The local market price per MT ranges from NGN300, 000.00 to NGN400, 000.00 for the unshelled and the pure coffee beans is more than N500,000 per MT depending on the quality and the period of the year. This is really very high and thus makes the export of coffee beans from Nigeria unattractive.