Commodity Profile: Coffee
In the second of a new series explaining how key commodities are affected by and contribute to climate change, Carbon Brief looks at coffee – from how it is grown in the world’s bean belt to where it is roasted, traded and consumed – with a special focus on Colombia and Ethiopia.
Coffee is the most popular drink in many countries and the most widely traded tropical product in the world. The world produces almost 11m tonnes of coffee per year and consumes about the same.
The global coffee trade accounts for 2.5% of the world’s agricultural commodity trade by value – but less than 0.6% of its trade by weight.
In total, the global coffee trade is worth about $31bn per year. More than 60% of that value comes from the trade of green, or unroasted, coffee beans and nearly 40% is generated by the trading of roasted beans.
Several of the top importers of green coffee – such as the US, Germany and Italy – are also among the top exporters of roasted coffee beans.
Coffee is grown across wide swathes of the tropics, with the area bounded by the tropics of capricorn and cancer sometimes called “the bean belt” or “the coffee belt”. The two most important varieties are arabica and robusta.