Asia's Small Coffee Origins

More than 80 countries across the globe are known to be producing coffee, but less than 20 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America account for some 90% of the world's entire coffee output.

The balance is made up by countless numbers of tiny lots of beans from more than 60 small coffee producing origins across the world, many of them so small that no international coffee analysts ever include them in their crop forecasts or harvest updates, and few traders in the futures markets know of their existence.

In Asia, three countries are inside the group of big producers with India, Indonesia and the world's second largest producer Vietnam. But what is not commonly known is that at least 17 other countries and island nations in Asia produce coffee, with output ranging from Cambodia's total known production of about 1,700 bags to Thailand's crop of more than 1.2 million 60-kg bags.

Although few statistics exist, industry officials say the trade of the Asian niche coffees in the U.S. specialty market has been growing steadily over the past few years in line with the general growth in consumer interest for trying something new and different.