Consumption of coffee across the world has increased despite the global economic meltdown. The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) made an upward revision for consumption for the year 2008, indicating continued dynamism in the annual rate of increase. The ICO estimated that the global consumption during 2008 was 130 million bags (60-kg per bag).
During the period between 2000 and 2008, the world’s annual consumption increased at an average rate of 2.4%. In 2009, there has not been any indication so far to suggest that the world economic crisis has had a significant impact on consumption, Nestor Osorio, executive director of ICO, said in a statement.
This assessment is reinforced by the performance of exports in July 2009, which stood at 7.8 million bags, bringing the cumulative total for the first ten months of the coffee year (October 2008 – July 2009) to 82.3 million bags compared to 80.2 million bags for the same period in 2007-08, an increase of 2.6%.
Brazil, the largest coffee producing country, exported 26.32 million bags during the first 10 months of the current year, up from 22.77 million bags exported in the same period a year ago. Coffee exports of Vietnam, the second largest producer in the world, increased to 15.7 million bags from 14 million bags.
However, exports from India declined to 2.2 million bags from 2.6 million bags. It was mainly due to increased domestic consumption, an official attached to the state-owned Coffee Board said. Coffee consumption in India climbed to 1.43 million bags in 2008 from 1.36 million bags in 2007 and 1.18 million bags in 2004.
Coffee consumption in Brazil stood at 14.7 million bags in 2004. It surged to 16.9 million bags in 2007 and 17.9 million bags in 2008. In Vietnam, consumption increased 1.02 million bags from 9.38 lakh bags.
Consumption in the UK increased to 3.06 million bags in 2008 from 2.82 million bags in 2007 while in Germany, it increased to 9.5 million bags from 8.6 million bags. Consumption in Mexico jumped to 2.2 million bags from 2.05 million bags in the same period while consumption in the Philippines surged to 1.06 million bags from 9.89 lakh bags.
Among exporting countries, per capita coffee consumption stood high in Brazil at 5.60 kgs, up from 5.34 kgs in 2007. The per capita coffee consumption in the same period in Honduras surged to 3.77 kgs from 2.41 kgs, Next to these two countries, the per capita consumption stood high in Costa Rica at 3.52 kgs followed by Dominican Republic at 2.28 kgs, Haiti at 2.06 kgs and Nicaragua at 2.01 kgs.