Peru altitude grades and NTP 209.027
Peruvian exporters describe coffee with the Central American altitude vocabulary (SHB above 1,350 m, HB 1,200-1,350 m) while the national standard NTP 209.027 'Café verde. Requisitos', revised in 2024 and amended in 2025 with an implementation guide (GIP 101:2026), sets physical grades by defects and sieve. Peru is also the largest exporter of certified organic arabica, so certification labels often matter more than grade in its trade.
- Grades
- 3
- Defect sample
- not published
- Screen sizes
- not used
- Origins using it
- 1
The grades
In this atlas's own words| Grade | What it requires |
|---|---|
| SHB (Strictly Hard Bean) | Grown at 1,350 m and above. |
| HB (Hard Bean) | Grown at 1,200-1,350 m. |
| NTP 209.027 classes | The Peruvian technical standard NTP 209.027:2024 with Technical Corrigendum 1:2025 sets requirements for quality, classification, sampling, test methods, packing and labelling of green coffee; its class thresholds were not accessed (INACAL sells the text). |
How it is measured
Screen sizes
This system does not grade by screen size.
Defects
Defect thresholds for the NTP classes not verified.
Altitude terms
SHBHB
Other grading systems
- Central American and Mexican altitude grades
- Classificação Oficial Brasileira (COB) / New York method
- Coffee Board of India grades
- Colombian export preparations
- Ethiopian grades 1-9
- Hawaii Administrative Rules Chapter 4-143 green coffee grades
- Kenya size and density grades
- Other national grade vocabularies
- Rwanda and Burundi screen grades
- SCA (formerly SCAA) green coffee classification, as publicly restated
- SNI 01-2907-2008 defect-value grades
- TCVN 4193 green coffee grades
- Tanzania Coffee Board grades