Germany and Italy top importers, producers of coffee in EU

Over half the total amount of coffee imported into the European Union (EU) enters through Germany and Italy, which together also account for over half the total coffee produced in the bloc.

For the occasion of International Coffee Day on 1st October, Eurostat released key figures related to the coffee industry in the EU.

Imports of coffee into Europe for 2020 increased by seven per cent when compared to 2010, reaching 2.9 million tonnes.

Most of the coffee imported in 2020 from non-EU countries came from two countries: Brazil (933,000 tonnes imported to the EU, or 32 per cent of the total extra-EU imports) and Vietnam (642,000 tonnes, 22 per cent).

The following largest extra-EU imports came from Honduras (216,000 tonnes, seven per cent), Uganda (166,000 tonnes, six per cent), Colombia (154,000 tonnes, five per cent), India (108,000 tonnes, four per cent), Peru (96,000 tonnes, three per cent), Ethiopia and Indonesia (both 78,000 tonnes, three per cent).

These imports were mainly going into Germany (1.1 million tonnes imported, or 38 per cent of the total extra-EU imports) and Italy (559,000 tonnes, 19 per cent), ahead of Belgium (309,000 tonnes, 11 per cent), Spain (274,000 tonnes, nine per cent) and France (205,000 tonnes, seven per cent).

These figures include all coffee products, whether or not roasted or decaffeinated, coffee husks and skins, and coffee substitutes containing coffee in any proportion.

Turning to production, in 2020, over 1.9 million tonnes of coffee were produced in the EU, an increase of 10 per cent when compared with 2010.

The EU’s coffee production was worth almost €11 billion, and it was equivalent to around 4.2 kilograms per inhabitant in 2020.

Among the EU member states, Italy produced the most roasted coffee in 2020 (616,000 tonnes, or 32 per cent of the total EU production), followed by Germany (571,000, 30 per cent).

These were ahead of France (149,000, eight per cent), the Netherlands (134,000, seven per cent), Spain (128,000, seven per cent) and Sweden (88,000, five per cent).

In 2020, these six EU member states produced 89 per cent of the total EU production of roasted coffee.

The data on production consider roasted non-decaffeinated coffee and roasted decaffeinated coffee.