ASIA

COFFEE CONSUMPTION GROWING FASTEST IN ASIA

Where Japan led the way on coffee on the 1960s, other countries in the region have since followed. Asia in recent years has seen the fastest regional increase in coffee consumption in the world.

Since 2000, coffee consumption in east and southeast Asia – the region covered in a recently-released study by the International Coffee Organization (ICO) – has grown at an average annual 3.9 per cent, lifting the volume consumed to 19.5 million bags in 2012.

If this trend continues – and the agency sees a very good chance that it will – consumption in the region is forecast to hit 28-30 million bags by 2020, compared with 12.2 million bags in 2000 and 8.4 million bags in 1990.

Although accounting for just over 30 per cent of the world’s population and 29 per cent of world GDP, the share of world coffee consumption of the 16 countries covered in Coffee Consumption in East and Southeast Asia: 1990-2012, is only about 14 per cent. This is because the per capita level in nearly all of them is very low in world terms.

Because of the immaturity of most of the markets in this traditional tea-drinking area of Asia, there is clearly room for improvement, with the chances of this expected to be given by a boost by a rising and increasingly wealthy population. History shows that as disposable income increases so does coffee consumption. Also encouraging for the future is the growing investment by multinational coffee companies in expanding their presence in the area.

The ICO study focuses specifically on the dynamics of coffee consumption in Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, China (including Macao and Hong Kong), Taiwan, Malaysia, Laos and Myanmar. The remaining markets of Brunei, North Korea, Cambodia, Mongolia and Timor-Leste are discussed in less detail, as the overall volumes involved are still very low, while Singapore is excluded from the analysis because of a lack of consistent data, although external sources suggest a relatively strong coffee culture there.

The ICO reports that consumption growth in most emerging Asian markets is being driven primarily by demand for Robusta coffee, which is used in soluble and ready-to-drink products, such as 3-in-1 mixes (coffee with whitener and sweetener) or 4-in-1 preparations (with flavourings added).

For more information, see the forthcoming September 2014 issue of Coffee & Cocoa International.

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