Coffee consumption scenario in Brazil during COVID

Raw Common Coffee Bean

Francielle Rozzatti

Published Sep 30, 2020

Coffee consumption has not gone untouched by the impacts that COVID has brought to Brazil and the world. Conventional coffees showed a punctual increase in demand from Brazilian homes - the second largest consumer of coffee in the world -, but the specialty coffee lines strongly felt the opposite. As the consumption of specialty and differentiated coffee usually takes place outside the home, the retraction was certain.

The Brazilian Coffee Industry Association (Abic), pointed out in June this year, in its Jornal do Café, that the coffee agribusiness recorded a 35% increase in product consumption in March and that, even in the face of a pandemic scenario, coffee still had penetration in 97% of Brazilian homes.

Still, the publication noted that for fear of contagion, people were spending less time in the markets and prioritizing more essential products, which brought a disadvantage to the marketing of coffee brands, which usually run tasting campaigns (now suspended) in these environments.

Out-of-home consumption, which corresponds to 34% of total national production, was also affected by the closure of bars, restaurants and cafeterias. The specialty coffee segment is mostly made up of micro and small companies that have directly suffered this impact. According to a survey among members of BSCA (Brazilian Association of the Sector), there was an average fall of 76.25% in the sale of the product, and cases that reached 100% fall.

On the other hand, there was an increase of around 49% in online sales. Unfortunately, this increase does not yet cover or compensate for losses caused by the closing of physical stores.