Ecuador Coffee Export Review: Loja, Zamora Chinchipe & Pichincha

Article Summary: 

This article is a green coffee export review of Ecuador written for specialty coffee buyers and importers. Key topics: Ecuador produces roughly equal volumes of Arabica and Robusta, with total 2024/2025 production at 355,000 60kg bags. The country uses the U.S. dollar, resulting in higher production costs than neighboring origins; it imports more coffee than it exports. The three main growing regions are Loja (up to 2,100m, smallholder farms, organic, weather-volatile), Zamora Chinchipe (up to 1,900m, organic-heavy), and Pichincha (northern, larger business-driven farms). Default processing is natural (“café en bola”); washed and experimental lots exist in small volumes. Logistics challenges include difficulty filling containers and mountainous road access; airfreight and spot purchases are common workarounds. Primary export port is Guayaquil. Royal Coffee currently offers Ecuadorian microlots through its Crown Jewel line, available on spot in Oakland.

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Ecuador Coffee Export Review:

Ecuador is a small country in South America that produces commercial and specialty grade coffee with half of the production being Robusta and the other half Arabica. Due to the country dollarizing, along with high labor costs and other economic factors, coffee from Ecuador is inherently more expensive than neighboring countries. Because coffee is so expensive to grow in the country, they import from other South and Central American countries. There are three main regions where coffee is grown Loja, Zamora Chinchipe and Pichincha. Natural processed coffee is available and used by locals because it is the cheapest production method. Washed coffees are also readily available, and we have seen small availability of experimental lots from the country.  

Ecuador Export Stats 

As of 2024, Ecuador exported $12.3 million dollars’ worth of coffee, ranked 82 out of 197 countries with the largest export in dollar amount. 2024/2025 production year Ecuador reached 355,000 60kg bags, not quite 50 containers worth.  Most of the coffee goes to these countries in this order; Chili, France, U.S , Colombia and Japan. The top commodity is meal and fish at 3% while coffee ranks 7th at 0.2%. Corn, rice and palm oil take up the most hectares of agricultural production in the country. 

Production 

From the 2025 crop to the 2026 crop, there was a decrease of 1% in production of coffee.  Robusta makes up a decent amount of production, roughly 50%, and produces a lot of instant coffee. This makes the country one of the few south American countries that produce both Arabica and Robusta Coffee. To keep production costs low, the default processing method is typically natural processing and is known locally as café en bola. Washed mild coffees are readily available from Ecuador, but you can find very small amounts of experimental style processing, and there are some famous producers from the region known for their pristine cup quality.  

Ecuador imports more coffee than it exports, including soluble (instant) coffee from Vietnam, because it is cheaper than buying it internally. There is a lot of coffee consumption internally in the country due to strong local and tourist consumption. It exported roughly 500,000 60kg bags in 2019 and imported 700,000 60kg bags. 

Growing Regions 

Loja is on the southernmost point of the country and due to its geographic location, most of its coffee is highly focused on quality, but is often susceptible to extreme weather patterns. Altitudes here can reach up to 2,100m and around 20% of arabica comes from this region. Loja is also a smallholder coffee economy, mirroring northern Peru, with small farms, migrant labor with Peru’s porous border, lots of exceptional coffee but not very strong supply chains for optimizing it. Also, a source for most of Ecuador’s organic coffee.   

Zamora Chinchipe is another region east of Loja, which also has great elevation, up to 1900m. It produces a small amount of the country’s arabica production, but organic cultivation is very common in this region.  

Pichincha is in a very mountainous region in the northern part of the country. Many in the region have started specialty coffee farms because they see potential and have more businesses driven farms with larger plots. Like other countries, many producers do not rely on just coffee to make a living and also grow plants like cacao, cotton and sugarcane.  

Logistics 

Because overall production does not quite hit that 50 container amount, it can be difficult to consolidate coffees from the country. With the base prices already being so high, it’s hard to find cheaper coffee to take up most of the container and buy a small amount of more expensive microlots. It’s a way bigger risk than its buying coffee from it neighbor, Brazil. Because of this, importers will sometimes airfreight coffees to remove the complication of filling a container. Some producers from the country have also taken on the work of importing coffee to the country, and other importers will then make spot purchases, a common practice in the industry. And for context, the base price is so expensive the country imports a lot of coffee from Colombia to purchase because it is so much cheaper, which is another reason why they import more coffee than they produce.  

The Andes mountains run right through the middle of the country, this plus aligning closely to the equator provides perfect elevation for coffee production and year-round harvests. Logistics can be a little tricky from the region due to the roads and mountainous landscape. Most exports are sent to the port of Guayaquil. It sits a little bit further south along the coastline and is the largest port in the country. The northern section of the country is bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the southern region on the eastern side, it is near the Amazon. Not only does elevation play a role in the flavor profiles we see from the country but the regions surrounding it create diverse microclimates for growing coffee.    

Royal Coffee Availability: 

Curious about buying? Ecuador lots have just landed in Royal’s warehouse in Oakland, Ca. Check out our micro-lot selections from our Crown Jewel line.