The genus Coffea has around 80 species originating from Africa and Asia. However, the most important ones, commercially, are: Coffea arabica and Coffea canephora. The most probable center of origin of Arabica coffee are the mountains south-west of Ethiopia, the highlands of Sudan and the north of Kenya, where it is part of the natural vegetation, at 1,300 to 2,000 meters altitude.

The primary center of distribution of the species was Yemen (Arabia Felix), after coffee was introduced there by way of Ethiopia around 575 AD. Arabs and Persians brought the coffee to Arabia and Yemen between 575 and 890 AD, while during the same time period native Africans brought it to Mozambique and Madagascar.

The Arabs had a strict policy to export only dry infertile beans, so that coffee could not be cultivated anywhere else. But the rising popularity of coffee in Europe caused a race to make off with some live coffee trees or beans and was eventually won by the Dutch in 1616, who brought some back to Holland where they were grown in greenhouses. The Dutch were also growing coffee at Malabar in India, and in 1699 took some to Batavia in Java, in what is now Indonesia.

Within a few years the Dutch colonies had become the main suppliers of coffee to Europe. Today, Indonesia is the fourth largest exporter of coffee in the world. In 1706 the Dutch took a plant to the botanical garden in Amsterdam. From there, seedlings were taken to botanical garden of Paris in 1713. It is believed that from this plant descend the major part of coffee plants now in Latin America.

The introduction of coffee in Latin America occurred in 1714 by the Dutch in Guyana. However, the 1720 French introduction to Martinique had a much greater impact; from where it was distributed to Mexico, Columbia (1723), Brazil (1727), Venezuela (1784) and Central America. Coffee reached Jamaica and Cuba in 1748. In Ecuador it was introduced in 1830, which started cultivating it around the towns of Las Maravillas and El Mamey, which lie in the coastal province of Manabí. From there it was distributed progressively through the rest of the country’s regions. Manabí, however, remained the prime producer of Ecuador’s coffee, and has exported it to Peru since the 1870s and to Europe since 1905.