The shrub begins to produce beans at three to four years of age, when sweet-smelling, white flowers fade and are replaced by oval red berries known as coffee cherries. Farmers pick the cherries and process them into green coffee, beans that have been husked, cleaned, dried, and graded. The green coffee is then sold on international markets to major coffee roasters around the world, such as Starbucks, Nestle, and Maxwell House. The coffee sector employs millions of small-scale producers in developing countries worldwide. In Central America, a prime coffee-growing area, there are over 200,000 small coffee producers, each typically holding between 1.4 and 7 hectares of land and struggling to keep coffee production profitable.
Coffee is the major economic activity in the area and the number one export crop for the region.
In El Salvador, coffee exports comprise about 23 percent of the country's total exports. Coffee also plays an important role in the condition of Central America's environment. Coffee processing produces more water pollution than Guatemala City, Managua, San Jose, and Tegucigalpa combined. Larger farms often produce non-shade grown coffee, using a style of cultivation that contributes to deforestation and biodiversity loss. Through its coffee programs, EnterpriseWorks helps to enhance coffee production by introducing or improving local processing, and establishing and strengthening marketing links between small producer cooperatives and international coffee buyers.