Translations:Coffee production in Venezuela/14/en

Coffee trees can be harvested within four years after planting. Each tree lives for about 50 years. While two pickings occur annually (October and November; December, January, and part of February) the latter one provides the larger harvest of the two. However, the picking season does vary by elevation and local conditions such that trees at elevations greater than 3,000 feet (910 m) are harvested later than those in lower elevations. Coffee production peaked to 1 million bags per year before 1914, and after local consumption much of its exports were second only to Brazil. In the Andean frontier region coffee production had increased ten times (between 1830 and 1930) making it the second largest coffee producing nation in the world. More than 82,000 tonnes of coffee were produced in 1919; however, poor agricultural practices, soil erosion, less incidence of rainfall and over use of soil strength caused a drastic decline in the yield, in the 1920s, which resulted in the decline of the coffee industry in the country; petroleum extraction compounded its downfall. Typically, coffee production is at its greatest during the months December and January, and shipping of Venezuelan coffee takes place between October and May. Coffee grown in Venezuela is largely consumed by locals and the rest is sold mainly to the United States, Belgium and Germany.