01 Aug Trends in the coffee sector in 2022: more quality and sustainability

The current situation of the ground and whole bean coffee market

The coffee sector in Spain has been considerably affected in recent years due to the health crisis caused by the pandemic, since a large part of coffee consumption takes place in bars and restaurants (out-of-home channel) and these have remained closed for a long time.

At present, the sector is still affected by the current supply crisis. Like many other sectors around the world, the coffee market is suffering from the current problems associated with raw materials, transport and energy.

Although it has not reached the values of 2019, the coffee sector is resurgent after the health crisis. According to the study carried out by Alimarket, the coffee market has partially recovered from the 2020 fall, with a 15.5% increase in OOH (out-of-home) consumption and 0.7% within the home.

Retail consumption has returned to normal (home consumption), something logical and predictable after the peaks in demand of the first wave of the pandemic. There has been an increase in consumption of 0.7% in tons and 1.8% in value.

More quality-conscious consumers

For a few years now, consumers in Spain have been requesting higher quality coffee. The trend started with the appearance of capsules and the wide range of coffee origins and flavors offered by these; and later with the appearance of third-generation coffee shops, who put coffee at the center of the business, serving coffees from different origins and of the highest quality, taking special care of the consumer’s experience.

Both aspects brought about a change in the way of conceiving coffee, going from being a commodity to becoming a higher level, more premium product. According to Fairtrade, between 2015 and 2020 fair trade coffee sales doubled to over 20.9 million euros. Currently, natural roast coffee is winning out over torrefacto roasted coffee, thanks to the “clean label” current that we are experiencing in our country.

The premiumization of the offer is still booming today and is also having an impact at the business level. We find more and more companies that offer naturally roasted coffee instead of torrefacto roasted coffee and who are committed to raising the quality of coffee distributed both for Horeca and for home consumption.

Responding to trends: more sustainable coffee packaging

In addition to quality, another of the transversal trends in the coffee sector is that of sustainability applied to the entire value chain.

We are faced with increasingly aware users, whose lifestyles embrace respect for the environment and sustainability. This trend has reached such a point that users are willing to change brands or pay more for a product that uses packaging that is more respectful of the planet.

According to the 2021 Alimarket  sector report, one of the aspects most valued and requested by consumers is the recyclability of packaging. The use of recyclable packaging or that which is made with recycled materials is a key element, as well as the reduction of materials and the use of materials with a low carbon footprint.

The response to these market trends is more sustainable and higher quality coffee packaging that lives up to an increasingly premium product.

Coffee packaging: what we do at Rieusset

Before the boom of environmentalism and environmental awareness, only the mechanical characteristics that the container must have to properly preserve the product were taken into account. For this reason, most containers for coffee beans and/or ground coffee are made with composite materials (conventional PET/PE structure), which are much more harmful to the environment as they cannot be separated for subsequent recycling.

Currently, in response to consumer concerns, in addition to protecting and preserving the product, packaging must also be sustainable. For this reason, coffee brands are beginning to change the packaging of their products in favor of more ecological alternatives.

At Rieusset we have developed more creative and sustainable solutions for coffee beans and/or ground coffee. We develop and print monomaterial packaging (full PE structure), with recyclable materials or traditional materials but with lower grammage.

Find out about everything we can do here: