21Nicaragua
1,687,000 bags (ICO 2009)In-depth country profile: production, varieties, classification, history, current situation and points that remain uncertain. Region: Central America.
Nicaragua went through difficult years, a devastating hurricane, then the coffee crisis of the early 2000s. The response came from the cooperatives, which made it possible to secure both quality and marketing. Since then the sector has regained a little optimism.
Coffee is the country's leading export product, and tens of thousands of families depend on it directly. Most of the production comes from smallholders farming under shade, in volcanic mountains. Nueva Segovia, in particular, often returns to the Cup of Excellence rankings.
- Botanical species
- Arabica exclusively
- Varieties
- Caturra, Bourbon, Maracaturra, Maragogype, Pacamara, Javanica, Catuai, Catimor…
- Altitude
- 650 to 1,500 m
- Shade
- Forest and fruit trees
- Harvest
- Manual and selective
- Processing
- Wet process, hulling at a workshop
- Sorting
- Mechanical and manual
- Harvest period
- October to December
- Packaging
- 69 kg bag
Altitude
| Description | Altitude |
| Low Grown (LG) | 700 to 1,000 m |
| High Grown (HG) | 1,000 to 1,500 m |
| Strictly High Grown (SHG) | > 1,500 m |
SHG is the best quality in the country. Little HG is exported under its own name: it is often blended with SHG and sold as such.
Quality, terroir and variety
Following the Honduran model: distinction between European (EP) and American (AP-USP) preparation, with no strict rule, the importer defines the number of defects and the homogeneity. The terroir (department or traced microlot) is increasingly valued, as is the variety: Nicaragua's Maragogype (~7,000 bags/year) is one of the best productions in the country.
History
In 1922, Ukers describes a country where coffee grows everywhere, but gives its best only between 600 and 900 meters. He names the Sierra de Managua, Diriamba, San Marcos and Jinotega, then the slopes of the Mombacho volcano and the island of Ometepe.
Only one date appears in his account: cultivation began in 1893 around Boaco, in the department of Chontales. It is valid only for that zone, and so does not say when the coffee plant entered the country.
Coffee was nonetheless already the republic's leading agricultural product. What held it back was not agronomy but transport, difficult on the Atlantic side. A coffee that does not reach the port does not sell.
The country exported 15,345,398 pounds in 1920.
Ukers 1922, ch. XX, p. 216-244, p. 239-240; Ukers 1922, ch. XXII, p. 289-291 (exports of the producing countries), p. 290Nicaragua went through difficult years: a devastating hurricane, then the coffee crisis of the early 2000s, when the ICO indicative price fell to a third of its 1997 value and reached its lowest real levels since 1900. The response came from the cooperatives, which secured both quality and marketing.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026; McCook, Coffee Is Not Forever (2019); ICO, indicative price 1997-2001; LC ch. 19Today
The volume at the head of the profile, 1,687,000 bags, is that of the profile (ICO 2009).
The varieties declared are Caturra, Bourbon, Maracaturra, Maragogype, Pacamara, Javanica, Catuai and Catimor. They grow between 650 and 1,500 meters, with selective manual harvesting, and go through the wet process.
Hulling is done in the workshops where the coffee is processed after harvest.
Nicaragua has also served as the cradle of a variety. Marsellesa was released there: it is a cross of HdT 832/2 by Villa Sarchí, made by Cirad and ECOM. HdT stands for the Timor Hybrid, the source of rust resistance most used in breeding. Marsellesa is in turn the parent of Starmaya.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026; World Coffee Research, Coffee Varieties Catalog 2025, Marsellesa and Starmaya profilesCoffee is the country's leading export product and tens of thousands of families depend on it directly. Most of it comes from smallholders farming under shade in volcanic mountains; Nueva Segovia often returns to the Cup of Excellence rankings.
Country Profiles, Marco De Sousa Rosa, 2026Gray areas
- The hurricane mentioned by the profile is neither named nor dated by the sources consulted (Mitch, in 1998, is the obvious candidate, but it is not cited).
- The estimate of Nicaraguan production for 2024-2025, around 2.69 million bags, comes from an ICO market report and was not verified against the primary document.
- The date of introduction of coffee to Nicaragua is not given by the sources consulted; Ukers dates only the start of cultivation in Chontales, in 1893.
- The Nicaraguan loss during the Big Rust is not isolated in the sources.