One of the positive economic developments occurred in Yemen was tremendous growth of Yemen’s coffee trading business which started in 15th century.
The port of city of Mocha on the Red coast of Yemen, from which a distinctive style of coffee takes name – was the port from which most of Yemen’s coffee was exported between the 61th and 18th centuries.
During the year 1000, some of the green beans were planted, and eventually coffee plantations were established at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, primarily in the countryside surrounding the city of Mocha.
It was visited in 1513 by Alfonso Albuquerque, but the first attempt to open trade with it was made in 1610, by the British expeditious under Sharpey and Sir Henry Middleton.
In 1525 Sultan Suleiman of Ottoman Empire dispatched a fleet to secure the coast of Yemen. An Ottoman army took the inland city of Zabid, following quickly on the heels of the seizure of the port of Mocha.
By the early 1600s, British and Dutch trading companies had opened profitable factories in Mocha. The Dutch were the first who established a factory there. They were followed by the French in 1708, and by the English soon after, which latter nation had nearly monopolized the trade.
Mocha’s trade activities extended as far as India and Southeast Asia in the eighteenth century the India Mughals sent ships from Indian ports such as Surat, Gujarat and Karwar in Karnataka, Kochi and other ports on the Malabar coasts.
Mocha’s importance to the coffee trade declined with opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.
City of Mocha
