Latest update March 2021
When sales and market shares of various certified coffees come out, I try to put them together in a post. Each certification scheme tends to announce them at different times of the year, and provides slightly different data. I’ve decided to put the most salient data together in a table for four of the main coffee certifications with environmental criteria, plus Starbucks CAFE Standards (a third-party verified set of supplier standards), with past data for reference. I’ve standardized the unit to metric tons for easy comparison. Links on the year go to source information, which usually has more detail.
For a little perspective, world production in 2018 was about 10.4 million metric tons, and the U.S. imports around 1.5 to 1.6 million metric tons of coffee a year. With the recent lowering of the environmental standards of Rainforest Alliance (merged with Utz as of 2018), only the only real benchmark we have of certified truly eco-friendly coffee is Smithsonian Bird-Friendly; this coffee must also be certified organic. Certified organic coffee comprises less than 10% of the global market (see note 3).
| Hectares certified |
Production (metric tons) |
Sales in metric tons (% of production)1 |
|
| Smithsonian Bird-Friendly |
2008: 5000 2010: 7600 2012: 8650 2014: 5544 2018: 12,800 |
2006: 3600 2008: 2700 2010: 4400 2012: 4735 2014: 3524 2018: 8620 |
2006: 200 (5.5%) 2010: 206 (4.7%) 2014: ~325 (9.0%) |
| Rainforest Alliance2 | 2007: 200,000 2009: 305,383 2012: 323,500 2014: 360,000 2016: 387,000 2017: 411,519 2018: 470,841 2019: 470,611 |
2006: 27,152 2007: 41,494 2008: 123,766 2009: 168,114 2010: 219,337 2011: 245,000 2012: 375,000 2013: 454,962 2014: 458,058 2016: 509,000 2017: 557,911 2018: 655,314 2019: 669,698 |
2008: 62,296 (50%) 2009: 67,583 (40%) 2010: 114,884 (52%) 2011: 129,864 (53%) 2013: 133,000 (37%) 2017: 289,485 (52%) 2018: 328,082 (50%) 2019: 393,550 (59%) |
| Organic3 | 2007: 546,541 2008: 463,500 2009: 560,368 2010: 642,833 2011: 534,392 2014: 762,916 2016: 882,000 2017: 849,675 |
2008: 195,782 2009: 204,606 2010: 230,819 2011: 248,767 2013: 248,000 2016: 447,000 2017: 370,000 |
2006: 30,000 2007: 38,000 2008: 117,560 (60%) 2009: 112,900 (55%) 2010: 117,960 (51%) 2011: 133,163 (53%) 2013: 133,000 (53%) 2017: 160,000 (43%) |
| Starbucks CAFE Practices4 | 20105: ~435,000 | Same as sales, see note 4 |
2007: 103,000 2008: 134,000 2009: 136,000 2010: 103,000 2011: 166,468 2012: 230,878 2013: 171,004 2014: 199,696 2015: 249,929 2017: 285,000 2018: ~294,000 2019: 310,000 |
| UTZ Certified6 | 2006: 163,300 2010: 320,308 2011: 348,086 2012: 508,661 2013:473,953 2014: 473,953 2015: 476,953 2017: 592,977 2018: 770,423 2019: 720,250 |
2006: 108,500 2007: 218,358 2008: 308,464 2009: 365,010 2010: 394,003 2011: 476,903 2012: 715,648 2013: 726,591 2014: 729,918 2015: 821,399 2017: 857,803 2018: 1,102,826 2019: 1,083,649 |
2006: 36,000 (33%) 2007: 53,000 (24%) 2008: 77,478 (25%) 2009: 81,367 (22%) 2010: 120,994 (31%) 2011: 136,752 (28%) 2012: 188,096 (26%) 2013: 224,028 (31%) 2014: 258,867 (35%) 2015: 238,394 (29%) 2017: 365,091 (42%) 2018: 518,807 (47%) 2019: 589,522 (54%) |
1 Not all coffee produced under certification criteria is sold as certified. For example, for convenience producers may sell their certified coffee “at the farm gate” to local traders rather than transport it through the supply chain per certification rules. The coffee can’t be sold as certified.
2 Generally, Rainforest Alliance figures come from their press releases. 2017-2019 data came from their Coffee Certification Data Report 2019. Hectares certified is for production area certified, not the total area of certified farms, which can include buildings, etc. and is often a much larger figure. For example, in 2016, RA stated that coffee farmers safeguarded the health of 945,000 hectares, but showed production hectares as approximately 360,000.
3 Organic coffee statistics are not centrally aggregated and notoriously hard to parse. Figures on total land in organic coffee often come from The World of Organic Agriculture yearbooks based on research by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL). 2017 data from State of Sustainable Markets 2019.
4 Starbucks regularly publishes updates to their ethical coffee sourcing program on their web site. The figures here for production and sales are identical as they include only CAFE Practices sourced coffee.
5 Land area is extrapolated from data in 2011 Ethical Sourcing Factsheet stating that at least 102,000 ha are set aside for conservation on Starbucks’ suppliers farms, and that represents about 23% of total area verified under CAFE Practices. Figures for sales for Starbucks are actually purchases by the company under this program.
6 UTZ and Rainforest Alliance agreed to merge in 2017 and retain the Rainforest Alliance name. 2017-2019 data came from the Coffee Certification Data Report 2019 which retained figures from both certifications. After 2021 data should reflect coffee all under one umbrella. Older UTZ accomplishments and data are gleaned from past annual reports. Prior to 2017, at least, UTZ figures for sales are actually the amount of certified coffee purchased by the first buyer. The amount of coffee sold as UTZ certified is slightly lower. UTZ and Rainforest Alliance merged in 2018.
Thank-you so much for the data and stats. I am impressed by Starbucks transparency in reporting.
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