Organic Coffee Market in the USA

The USA consumes more coffee than any other nation on the planet. Of the nations that drink the most coffee the USA ranks first followed by Germany, Japan and France. Of course the Dutch, Fins and Swedes drink more per capita but their populations are much smaller. How much of US consumption is organic coffee? The USA consumes nearly half of all organic coffee that is grown. The portion of US coffee imports that is certified as organic or fair trade is 16% of all green coffee according to Trends in Trade of Certified Coffee. The value of US organic coffee sales in the USA passed a billion dollars a decade ago according to the Organic Consumers Association.

Organic Coffee and K Cups

A substantial portion of US coffee comes from single servings, K cups or similar products. The efficiency of making just one cup is very attractive. And you can get organic coffee in single serving cups as well. But we asked this question last year, does organic coffee in a K cup make sense?

Keurig Green Mountain is coming out with a new product line, organic coffee in K cups. Our question is if organic coffee in a K cup makes any sense. People drink organic coffee because they like the taste and aroma of high quality coffee, they like the idea of a pure produce free of unnecessary contaminates and because they want to help protect the environment. Putting organic coffee in a K cup raises some questions but first a little about the new Keurig product line.

Billions of K cups go into landfills each year. If part of the reason you drink organic coffee is that you want to protect the environment then even organic coffee in a Keurig K cup is a problem. But there was a solution. Keurig also made refillable K cups under the brand, My K Cup. You could also refill these with any coffee of your choice, which would commonly be cheaper than the coffee from Keurig. Unfortunately that changed.

Unfortunately Keurig stopped that because they were losing business.

Coffee at the Coffee Shop

You can get organic coffee at shops like Starbucks which buys about 2 million pounds of organic green coffee beans each year. They also note that much of the high quality coffee that they buy is grown using organic methods but the grower does not go to the trouble of certifying because they sell their whole crop to Starbucks. Thus you are often getting organic coffee but not certified organic coffee at your local coffee shop.

Who Drinks Organic Coffee?

We found out in our article, Do Millennials Drink Coffee, that this age group prefers higher quality coffee.

It turns out that millennials do not necessarily drink more coffee than other generations of Americans, but they like good coffee and are willing to pay for it. In a world in which investments in the stock market and real estate have bottomed out right before our eyes, many millennials are “investing” in quality of life which includes better food and beverage experiences.

It is good news for the organic coffee business that this younger age group likes the product.




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