Global Market Report: Coffee

Voluntary sustainability standard (VSS) compliant coffee production is increasing at a higher rate than the overall sector, with significant growth coming from least-developed countries.

The coffee sector’s projected growth is fuelled by increasing demand from producing countries and emerging economies traditionally not among major coffee importers, including Brazil, Indonesia and China, and the expansion of retail options, such as ready-to-drink coffee and pods or capsules. However, the growth of VSS-compliant coffee is concentrated mainly in traditional markets such as Europe and the United States and remains lower than supply. This supply–demand imbalance can limit the market growth potential of VSS-compliant coffee and needs to be addressed by value chain actors to benefit from the opportunities that stem from growing coffee demand from producing and emerging countries.

The Sustainable Commodities Marketplace Series from IISD presents sustainable production and consumption market information on agricultural commodities to foster transparency, knowledge and strategic decision making for sustainable development. Future reports will focus on banana, cocoa, cotton, palm oil, soybean, sugar and tea.