Market Channels for Coffee – Part One1 min read

As part of our continued editorial endeavor, we welcome the visitors of the Best Food Importers website to another series of articles dedicated to an important subject in the coffee distribution industry, namely an in-depth analysis of the market channels for coffee distribution in the broad context of the European Union geopolitical space.

According to the figures published by the United States Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service, the EU market represents an crucial target distribution area for the coffee industry, the total imports of the EU and EFTA countries amounting to around half of the worldwide totals. Furthermore, when it comes to coffee consumption, EU countries amount to 30 percent of the worldwide coffee consumption. The value chain of the coffee production and distribution industries is illustrated in the image below.

Small and large European buyers alike have one defining characteristic: they demand more stringent requirements and more transparency for each and every economical entity that is part of this chain that brings the final product to the European consumer. Still, the recent developments on the international coffee market, with it’s growing demand and expected scarcity of product, are bound to affect these demands, maybe leading to a more “laissez faire” attitude in this regard. A recent document compiled for Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries and The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands, by CREM BV in collaboration with CBI sector expert Joost Pierrot noted that market opportunities in the EU countries can be found “in the production and sale of roasted coffee for on-trade and household consumption using (semi) automatic machines.”

Image courtesy of  Connie Ma – Some rights reserved

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