Coffee production years after planting for a coffee plant to produce coffee beans that are ripe enough to harvest. The plant eventually grows small white blossoms that drop and are replaced by green berries. These green berries will become a deep red color as they ripen. It takes about 9 months for the green cherries to reach their deepest red color. Because this kind of harvest is labor-intensive, and thus more costly, it is used primarily to harvest the finer arabica beans. The laborers who pick coffee by hand receive payment by the basketful. , payment per basket is between US$2.00 to
Shade-grown coffee Berry Borer in Jamaica was calculated to be worth $75/hectare in 2005, averaging $1004/farm studied. This equals about 30% of the per capita gross national income for that time. Another study in Puerto Rico used exclosure plots to exclude lizards, found to be more abundant in shade-grown coffee than sun-grown coffee, showed that the exclusion of lizards led to an increase in leafminers, an insect that is a serious pest to coffee plants. Many species of bees are attracted to shaded polycultures that have a variety of flowering plants in addition to coffee. This increase in bee abundance results in