Coffee plants were introduced into the country in the 19th century by French colonizers. Following World War II, coffee production increased from 36,000 tons in 1945 to 112,500 tons in 1958. After Ivory Coast became independent (in 1960), coffee production peaked in the 1970s making it the third-largest coffee-producing country in the world, after Brazil and Colombia, before the civil war unsettled cultivation. Coffee production and policy are derived from the era when Ivory Coast was a colony of French West Africa. This has attracted French companies to invest in the sector.