How is coffee harvested?

Two harvesting systems are used most widely in coffee growing:

Picking: Coffee picking is a totally manual harvesting process in which the ripe cherries are selected and picked one by one, requiring pickers to pass through the crop several times. This yields a more uniform, high-quality crop.

Stripping: Coffee stripping is a process that may be manual or mechanised, in which all the fruit is removed in one go when it's of average ripeness. It often requires a further check to eliminate impurities and under-ripe or already fermented cherries.