Abstract
Conversion of cherry and parchment coffee (Coffea arabica L.) to green coffee was determined during two consecutive years of harvest for eight different coffee cultivars grown in Mexico. 'Mass balance' was useful to adjust the fruit humidity to 0.12 g/g for coffee bean raw processing. Univariate and multivariate analyses showed significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) among the cultivars. A linear discriminant function based on twelve variables measured on several dates in two consecutive harvest years showed that 'Typica' and 'Mundo Novo' had high efficiencies in conversions from cherry to green coffee on three harvest dates in 1999 and one in 2000. In contrast, 'Bourbon' and 'Yellow Caturra' required greater amount of fresh fruit to obtain 46 kg (1 quintal) of green coffee. The cultivar effects on the parchment to green coffee bean yield were not clearly identified. Harvest dates studied did not significantly influence the conversion of cherry or parchment to green coffee bean yields in the two years evaluated.