MILAN – The European Union consumes almost a quarter (24%) of the world’s coffee, confirming its position as by far the largest market for this product. To supply the sector, the European Union imported 2.9 million tonnes (48.3 million bags) of green and roasted coffee from non-EU countries in 2025, worth 18.7 billion euros. These are the opening figures from the report “The Economic Impact of Coffee in Europe”, carried out by London-based Europe Economics, a leading economic consultancy firm, on behalf of the European Coffee Federation (ECF).
The findings were presented yesterday, Thursday 25 June 2026, at a round-table discussion at World of Coffee Brussels.
Brazil and Vietnam remain the EU’s largest suppliers, accounting for 34.2 per cent (just over one million tonnes) and 20 per cent (587,000 tonnes) of total imports respectively.
Other major suppliers include Uganda (8.9%), Colombia (5.5%), Honduras (4.6%), Ethiopia (4.5%), India (3.8%) and Indonesia (3.7%). These eight countries therefore account for around 85% of imports.
Imports of green coffee rose from 2.8 million tonnes in 2020 to 2.81 million in 2021, peaking at 2.97 million in 2022, fall to 2.67 million in 2023, rise again to 2.92 million in 2024 and finally decline to 2.86 million in 2025.
These volumes consisted, for the most part, of non-decaffeinated coffee
The very sharp price rises in recent years have caused the value of imports to surge from 5.8 billion in 2020 to 6.5 billion in 2021, 11.1 billion in 2022, 9 billion in 2023, 12 billion in 2024 and 17 billion in 2025.
The European Union imports mainly non-decaffeinated green coffee (96.3% in 2025)
The second most significant category – again with reference to 2025 – was non-decaffeinated roasted coffee (2.3%).
Next came: decaffeinated green coffee (0.6%); extracts, essences or concentrates of coffee, including soluble coffee (0.6%); and decaffeinated roasted coffee (0.2%).
The physical entry of coffee into the EU27 is concentrated in a relatively small number of Member States, says the report
Germany and Italy remain at the top of the list of the largest coffee importers. These two countries – together with Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France – account for almost nine-tenths of non-EU imports.
In 2025, over a third (34.4%) of the EU’s imports of green and roasted coffee (both decaffeinated and non-decaffeinated) passed through Germany: a volume of 1.01 million tonnes (16.83 million bags). Germany’s coffee enters primarily via the Port of Hamburg, which is one of the world’s leading coffee ports. Hamburg, along with the ports of Bremen/Bremerhaven, not only receive coffee for German consumption but also serve as transit points for coffee re-exported to other EU countries.
Italy ranked second, accounting for 20.7% of imports, equivalent to 608,000 tonnes (10.13 million sacks), which transited mainly through the ports of Trieste and Genoa.
Behind these two countries came Spain (9.6%), with Barcelona as its main port of entry, and Belgium (9.2%). The Belgian Port of Antwerp is an important transit hub for coffee moving into and across Europe, and it is one of the largest coffee storage sites globally with more than 250,000 tonnes of coffee beans held there at any one time.
Next come the Netherlands (7.4%), via the port of Rotterdam, and France (7.1%), via Marseille and Le Havre.
“These figures should be interpreted as showing where imports are recorded, rather than where coffee is ultimately processed or consumed. Some imports pass through major logistics hubs before being moved onwards within the single market,” says the report. “This is particularly relevant for countries such as the Netherlands, where Eurostat notes that imports may be overstated because of the so-called Rotterdam effect, whereby goods arriving from outside the EU are recorded as Dutch imports before being re-exported to other Member States.10 Similar considerations may apply, to differing degrees, in other European port economies.”
How much is the European coffee processing industry worth?
Around 17.2 billion euros, according to the latest Eurostat data EU27 sold production of coffee-processing products, which relate to 2024. The lion’s share is accounted for by the production of non-decaffeinated roasted coffee, which totalled 1,830,070 tonnes (30,501,167 bags), generating a value of 13.755 billion, representing a 77 per cent share by volume and 80 per cent by value.
Production of decaffeinated roasted coffee in EU countries was much more modest, amounting to 64,965 tonnes (1,082,750 bags), with a value of 554 million, representing approximately 3 per cent in both volume and value. The volume of decaffeinated green coffee is considerably higher, amounting to 180,000 tonnes (3 million bags), with a value of 400 million and a share of 8 per cent and 2 per cent, by volume and value respectively.
Coffee extracts, concentrates and preparations, account for 300,000 tonnes and a value of 2.5 billion (13% by volume and 15% by value).
Italy leads the way in roasted coffee
Italy’s production of roasted coffee (including decaffeinated) stood at 522,000 tonnes (8.7 million bags) in 2024, representing a 27.5% share, and was slightly higher than that of Germany, which stood at 517,000 tonnes (27.3%).
These were followed by: Spain (8.9%), France (7.1%), the Netherlands (6.5%), Belgium (2.2%) and Finland (2.1%).
The report specifies that the PRODCOM database, on which these latest statistics are based, does not provide a comprehensive picture. Approximately 12 per cent of EU27 production is not attributed to a specific member state in PRODCOM, with Portugal the most notable missing datapoint in 2024 given in 2023 it accounted for 2.5 per cent of EU roasting.
As regards decaffeinated coffee, the report highlights that there are around 16 decaffeination plants globally, of which five major plants are located in Europe. The two largest European plants are located in Bremen, Germany, each producing more than 100,000 tonnes of decaffeinated coffee per year. Three other major plants are located in Italy and produce an average of around 10,000 tonnes each, the report concludes.
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