The Global Coffee Trade in Numbers (Infographic)

Paradoxically, the global coffee industry is getting bigger and bigger every year. Where is the paradox on that? The puzzle lies in the fact that coffee was already the best seller among drinks, the most consumed beverage worldwide and the second most traded commodity after oil.

The significant increase of both coffee's production and consumption was cultivated in parallel with the speciality coffee movement, famous as the third wave of coffee. This revolutionary trend of global coffee industry changed the perspective of how we treat, consume or appreciate coffee.

This turning point shifted the existing state of affairs towards higher quality and healthier work ethics, while it created more experts in each step of the production process. In the third wave of coffee connoisseurship, coffee is not treated anymore as a mere commodity but rather, as an artisanal foodstuff similar with other products such as wine.

Of course, this radical change increased both the demand-side and supply-side figures of coffee imports and exports respectively. The quantity of production and consumption has reached the highest numbers that we have ever observed until today. An increase that does not seem to slow down in any of the projections for upcoming years.

Brazil and Vietnam can be considered the usual suspects in the chain of coffee production. They have constantly exported the largest amount of coffee, while for the year 2015-16 their combined exports overcame the total amount of all other exporting countries together. In total, the worldwide production has increased 22% the last 15 years.

However, even though the coffee production has reached these dizzying heights, no more than one third remained in the origin countries. The remaining two thirds either consumed by or traded to importing countries. Germany, Italy, and France lead in gross imports from the European Union member states, while USA broke its annual record of imports in 2014 with 27.6 million coffee bags of 60kg each.

In the infographic that we have prepared here at Market Inspector, you can follow the updated global coffee trade numbers in an easy-to-read visual form.