(Update: I now regularly update the post Eco-certified coffee: How much is there? when new information is available.)
The North American Organic Coffee Industry Report 2010 by Daniele Giovannucci shows that the North American organic coffee market topped $1.4 billion dollars in 2009. This represents 93 million pounds (around 42,000 metric tons) of organic coffee imported into the United States and Canada, a 4.1% growth since last year.
Meanwhile, Rainforest Alliance reports that it sold 193 million (87,583 metric tons) of certified coffee in 2009 (worldwide), up 41%. They estimate this as 1.5% of the international export market
In its 2009 annual report (PDF), UTZ Certified announced the amount of coffee it certified was up over 18% to whopping 804 million pounds (365,000 metric tons), produced in 21 countries. The report also noted that UTZ Certified arabica coffee provided an average premium of 5.7 cents/lb.
2009 figures are not yet available for Smithsonian’s Bird-Friendly certified coffee (which is also certified organic), but their 2008 figures are in this post, when I last provided market share data on eco-friendly coffees.
For a little perspective, world production in 2009 was about 7.4 million metric tons, and the U.S. imported 1.4 million metric tons of coffee. Sustainably-grown coffees are still a small slice of the pie.
Photo by Joe McCarthy under a Creative Commons license.
Revised on January 7, 2022