Harvesting

Harvesting can be done either once per year or year round, depending on the species and the climate. The flowering and fruiting of the plants are dependent on the cycle of rainy seasons. The blooming of flowers often occurs during the rainy season, while the fruit matures within 9 to 11 months afterwards. The perfectly ripened berries are bright red, glossy, and firm.

There are several harvesting methods:

• Selective picking: The ripe berries are picked by hand. The green berries are left to ripe, and are then later picked. This process is time-consuming, but it has the advantage of allowing the green berries to ripen.
• Strip picking: Everything on the branch is stripped off, including the ripened berries, flowers, unripened berries and over-ripened ones. This is practiced in some regions of Africa and in Brazil, and often gives poor results. However, it saves time, thus bringing economic benefits to regions where the labour cost is high.
• Combing: This involves combing the branch with a special, flexible comb, which allows only the ripened berries to be collected.
• Mechanical: The machine vibrates the trunks, shaking the ripened berries to the ground where they can be collected. After picking, the berries are collected in bags and transported to the coffee processing factory. For the dry processing method, the berries are dried in the home.

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