ABSTRACT
Coffee is an important agricultural commodity contributing significantly to the economies of many developing countries. Coffea L. consists of at least 125 species distributed throughout Africa, Madagascar, the Comoros Islands, the Mascarene Islands (La Réunion and Mauritius), tropical Asia, and Australia (Davis 2010, 2011; Davis et al. 2006, 2011). The two main commercial species used in the production of the beverage coffee are Coffea arabica L. (arabica coffee) and C. canephora A. Froehner (robusta coffee), with arabica coffee accounting for about 70% of total coffee production (International Coffee Organization 2013a).
