The Dutch were the first to import coffee on a large scale, and they were among the first to defy the Arab prohibition on the exportation of plants or unroasted seeds when Pieter van den Broeck smuggled seedlings from Aden into Europe in 1616.
And now you can go pick up a plant at a nursery that tells you it’s illegal to propagate it, even for your own personal use. But if people had obeyed that law back in the day, our multi-billion dollar coffee empires would be run by the same people that run OPEC. Except it would be Officially Pissed-off Exporters of Coffee in this case.
Ironically, with today’s technology he could bring back a small piece of root, properly kept (in a fridge), and we could clone the whole plant from a few cells on the inside, but that could make you an international thief according to some patent and copyright laws.