The history of coffee in El Salvador is inextricably linked to the nation's development. Introduced in the late 1880s, coffee quickly displaced indigo as the country's main export, and by the 1920s, coffee accounted for 90% of all of El Salvador's exports.
Some history
This significant production was owned by a small elite landowning class that held vast tracts of land (President General Tomás Regalado alone had amassed over 6,000 hectares by 1895!) and was closely tied to El Salvador's governance, with both negative and positive consequences for the country's development.
Today, 95% of the coffee produced in El Salvador is shade-grown, and the passion and expertise of the farmers, combined with skilled labor for harvesting and milling, greatly contribute to the country's continued high-quality production.
Present day
Furthermore, today coffee producers are supported by the Salvadoran Coffee Council, which does great work supporting and promoting Salvadoran coffee, both domestically and internationally, and provides assistance to the country's producers.
Through their efforts, there has been a tireless drive to stimulate export markets for producers and to maintain and improve the quality of coffee produced in El Salvador. As they say in El Salvador... Drink it up and smile!
Coffee is grown more or less throughout the country (well... it's not that big, after all), which is divided into 3 and 7 geographical regions depending on who you ask. All are considered different from each other, mainly in terms of altitude and flavor characteristics.
