The global output of raw coffee beans in 2016 increased by about 1.4 million bags over last year.

The global output of raw coffee beans in 2016 increased by about 1.4 million bags over last year. Brazil is still the top coffee producer in the world, followed by Vietnam, the high producer of Robusta.

Although Arabica is more fastidious about its growing environment, due to market demand, the output of Arabica this year is still much higher than that of Robusta, with a proportion close to 7:3.

In terms of global coffee consumption, this year has increased by 1.9 million bags over last year, with a total consumption of 151,300000 bags, or about 9.078 million tons.

Coffee consumption was higher than total production in 2014 and 2015. In the 2015 season, the deficit between production and sales has reached 3.3 million bags. This means that the oversupply of coffee in 2012 and 2013 has grown into a shortage of coffee in the past two years. On the other hand, the increasing reserves in the previous production season have solved the actual consumption demand.

Has China become the consumer market with the greatest potential?

Looking back to China, according to the statistics of the London International Coffee Organization, compared with the global average growth rate of 2%, China's coffee consumption is growing at an astonishing rate of 15% a year, indicating that there is a huge room for the development of China's coffee industry in the future.

In terms of absolute quantity, the total amount of coffee in China is far less than that in western countries, but from the perspective of development, China may be the most potential coffee consuming country in the world. It is conservatively estimated that if the per capita consumption of coffee in 2020 is 1 cup per day, only the coffee market will reach 50 billion US dollars per year, and the whole industry chain will produce a market of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Globally, ground coffee accounts for more than 87% of total coffee consumption, while instant coffee accounts for less than 13%. In China, instant coffee is the largest segment of the coffee consumption market, accounting for 84% of the market share, while the market share of ground coffee is only about 16%. On the contrary, the growth rate of the domestic instant coffee market is actually not as fast as that of the freshly ground coffee market, mainly because consumers are more inclined to consume coffee beans and go to cafes because of the change in consumer habits. The industry expects the average growth rate of instant coffee sales to slow to 8.3% in 2012-2017.