Coffee production in Sri Lanka

Although coffee production remains a source of revenue, it is no longer a main economic sector.

The first arabica coffee plants introduced to Ceylon may have arrived from Yemen via India, by Muslim pilgrims in the early 17th century.

[2] Production was also restricted by the Dutch East India Company as they did not want competition against coffee produced on their plantations in Java.

[8][9] Edward Barnes, who became Governor of Ceylon in 1824, established another plantation in Gannoruwa[10] in 1825[11][12] (now a part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Peradeniya).

[15] Most of these early ventures were economically unsuccessful, due to a number of factors including unsuitability of the lowland areas, competition from the West Indies, lack of cultivation skills and poor infrastructure.

At the initiative of the British colonial administration, Sri Lanka experimented with coffee as a plantation crop in the 1830s.

The Bank of Ceylon supported the proliferation of coffee estates, which resulted in infrastructure development within the Kandyan region.

[19] During the period of worldwide economic depression in 1846, production declined, conflicts arose, and taxes were levied to compensate the losses to the economy, due to the falling price of coffee.

Investors flocked to Ceylon from overseas and around 100,000 ha (386 sq mi) of rain forest was cleared to make way for coffee plantations.