Eastern Europe is notable for the fact that it has a significant market for instant coffee, which is able to compete with the price of other coffee products. In some countries, for example, in Bulgaria, there are a lot of coffee machines with instant coffee on the streets, where you can get a cup for 1-1.5 euros, so it doesn't even make sense to open coffee shops with something refined, because the population simply won't accept it. The specialty market, although developing at a rate of 5-15% per year, depending on the country, remains small in absolute terms due to the small economy of the countries themselves. For comparison: all specified countries (20 pieces, see below). list in Part 1 of this article) collectively give only 10% of GDP from the level of US GDP (2.8 trillion dollars against тр 27.36 trillion dollars), and the contribution of each individual country to this indicator ranges from 0.05% (Moldova) to 2.68% (Poland).
Therefore, it is not surprising when small economies of countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia or Latvia consume little coffee in all price segments. Thus, even if they show a remarkable increase in consumption in one year or another, expressed in 2 percent figures, in absolute terms it never exceeds a couple of tens of millions of euros.
At the same time, it is impossible to deny the fact that there is an increase in the specialty coffee market in the Eastern European bloc as such.
Even in countries where retailers and chains prevail, more and more such companies are inclined to introduce practices for purchasing coffee that is subject to one or another certification, which distinguishes such coffee by quality level, into their work processes. And also focus on responsible and moral practices of coffee purchases, which is the basis of the specialty coffee philosophy. Despite the fact that these countries do not or almost do not have their own separate certifying bodies that work with specialty or exclusive coffee, issuing their unique certificates to individual brands, a number of countries have branches of individual international organizations.
So, in particular, in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland there are branches of Fairtrade Certification, through which local sales of coffee with this certification are promoted. In Poland alone, Fairtrade coffee sales accounted for 22% of all coffee sales on the market in 2019 (68 millions euro). Interestingly, the main driver of Fairtrade coffee sales in Poland is the Orlen gas station chain, which has been selling Fairtrade coffee since 2008. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Fairtrade coffee sales are much lower — about 900 tons per year, and sales are mostly organized through local chain supermarkets, some of which, oddly enough, are also located in gas stations.
Another certification available in Eastern Europe is Rainforest Alliance. This coffee is mainly distributed through international retailers (supermarkets) and coffee chains. At the same time, in absolute terms, such a market remains small. This can be explained by the fact that, despite the relative abundance of these countries compared to many other countries in the world, Eastern Europe is much poorer than Western Europe (sometimes the difference is not just times, but even an order of magnitude).
As a result, the distribution of high-level food products from the total sales volume here does not exceed 5% (and most often it is trampled at the level of 1-2%). In the same highly developed country of the bloc, Poland, organic and other" eco " products are sold for no more than 350 million rubles a year. euro (at the same time, Poland remains the largest market in Eastern Europe in terms of the number of people who prefer instant coffee — 79%). And in the relatively large Croatian market, the sale of Eco and organic products is no more than 100 million rubles. euro per year.
Although the increase in consumption of organic coffee (Eco, Green and specialty options) in Croatia, Hungary and several other countries is from 10% to 25% per year over the past 6 years, the absolute increase in money is expressed in tens of millions of euros, no more. And in the much more modest markets of Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Estonia and Latvia, tens of millions of euros a year of growth are achieved only if you count the indicators of all these countries together.
Exceptional growth was shown only in the period 2021/2020, when in some countries the consumption of specialty coffee was 28% more than a year earlier. However, this exception is due to the fact that everyone was sitting at home and the global economy slowed down significantly compared to the previous year.
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