INTERNATIONAL COFFEE MARKET – Part Three2 min read

In the second installment of our series of articles dedicated to the international coffee market for the “Bestfoodimporters.com” website, article that focused on an analysis on each of the four main groups of coffee blends: Colombian Milds, Other Milds, Brazilian Naturals and Robustas, we presented data offered by the International Coffee Organization. Let’s use this opportunity to provide a brief presentation of this important organization for the benefit of our readers.

The International Coffee Organization (ICO) is the premiere intergovernmental organization for the coffee market and coffee production alike, reuniting governments from the coffee exporting countries as well as the governments from the coffee importing countries, in order to, as stated in the organization’s yearly review for the 2012-2013 coffee year, “to tackle the challenges facing the world coffee sector through international cooperation”. The countries that are members of this organization represent, in total, a 94 percent out of the total coffee production volume and 75 percent market share out of the total worldwide coffee consumption. The mission of this organization is to is to “strengthen the global coffee sector and promote its sustainable expansion in a market-based environment for the betterment of all participants in the coffee sector”.

Last year, in 2013, ICO celebrated 50 years since it’s establishment, taking great care to commemorate the contributions brought by the activity of it’s members for the betterment of the international coffee trade and production sector, also noticing the upward trend in coffee consumption, especially amongst the new nations emerging as important consumers of this particular product. The International Coffee Organization has established a programme of activities for the 2013/14 coffee year, with a great emphasis placed on communication, public outreach and dissemination of knowledge, efforts that include project activities, with appropriate intergovernmental, international, regional and other organizations, as well as with the private sector representatives.

Furthermore, ICO planned to pay great attention to the national coffee polices on a national and international level, with emphasis on the consultation of their members and on the identification of priority issues, opportunities and trends. A plan to increase awareness of the climate change issues as part of a greater effort for a sustainable coffee sector was also implemented. As in the previous years, the organization will strive to provide precise and comprehensive data and statistics about the coffee production volume and the coffee consumption volume, even though, from the 1st of January onward, the data for the individual countries from the European Union will be published solely for the EU’s Eurostat database.

Image courtesy of Stirling Noyes – Some rights reserved

© www.bestfoodimporters.com 2014