India: Coffee Consumption and Chains

India might be one of the world’s largest coffee producer countries, but the nation as a whole is still a tea drinker. Many coffee growing farmers may never have tasted coffee in their lives as coffee is just another crop they sell to the west. Nearly two third of the population doesn’t drink coffee.

The coffee demand over the last decade has increased considerably by 40% (according TheHinduBusinessLine) might be low as compared to the European per capita rate but still indicative of coffee culture picking up in the country. Coffee consumption in India is about 85 grams of coffee per person per year which has increased from 15.6 to 16.6 cups as compared to last year.

Although there is a net increase in the popularity of coffee in India, still obtaining a cup brewed from local coffee beans in India might be difficult as three quarters of the local produce is exported with Belgium, Germany and Italy making the top of the buyers’ list.

World’s sixth biggest coffee producer has an estimated yield of 4.7 million 60-kg bags of coffee per year most of which is low quality Robusta, as Robusta trees take low cost to grow.

With rising local coffee consumption demand, India might be importing high quality coffee in a matter of few years. South and Central American as well as East African beans are already finding their way into the Indian market. An already built demand is estimated to 1.2 million bags each year and going up. Over the next 15 years the per capita demand is expected to reach 1 kg, according to Reuters.

Coffee has already been more popular in south India as compared to the rest of the state where a traditional coffee bar or “Kaapi” offers only a standing space to the customer. But café culture has become nationwide since early 2000 with Café Coffee Day being the most established and popular coffee chain. The chain is of local origin and started out in 1996. They now own around 1500 outlets throughout the country, according to ineedcoffee.com.

Coffee chains around the globe have now joined the Indian landscape with Barista, having more than 190 outlets (Reuters), GloriaJeans with 30 outlets (The Indian Times) Costa coffee, with 86 outlets (TheHinduBusinessLine) Starbucks and Brewberrys with 45 stores in 15 states are worth mentioning names. Starbucks entered Indian market in 2012 and are reported to have 75 stores by now (Cnbc.com).

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