Re: Liza on coffee
On Jul 7, 2006, at 5:55 PM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
Is Jordan right about the drop-off in coffee consumption?
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EUY/is_6_10/ai_113524726
U.S. coffee consumption shows impressive growth
Food & Drink Weekly, Feb 16, 2004
Americans drank a record amount of coffee at home, in the office and
at trendy cafes last year, lifting green coffee roastings to a 30-
year high, industry research found last week. “The specialty coffee
industry created a number of different entry level points for
consumers that leads to that coffee drinking habit. Ninety percent of
the credit goes to the specialty industry,” said Ted Lingle,
executive director of the Specialty Coffee Association of America.
Cumulative to December 27, 2003, U.S. green coffee roastings totaled
about 19.3 million 60-kg bags, up from 18.6 million a year earlier,
according to Complete Coffee Coverage, an industry newsletter. “These
are the best roasting numbers since the 1973 level of 19.415 million
bags,” Judith Ganes, commodities specialist with J. Ganes Consulting
LLC, said, citing data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Roastings
came to just 17.55 million bags in 1997, when coffee prices surged to
$3.18 per lb on the Coffee, Sugar, and Cocoa Exchange in New York.
Consumption figures and consumers both benefited by lower retail
prices at $2.84 per lb at the end of 2002, down from a peak monthly
average of $4.67 per lb. in 1997, according to the Bureau of Labor
Statistics. This improvement in roastings is even more impressive
considering that U.S. imports of roasted coffee hit 34,466 tonnes in
the January-November period, according to the latest data from the
U.S. Commerce Department. “This is positive news and one more sign
we’ve turned the corner on consumption. This roasting number confirms
our 2003 drinking survey showing the number of Americans drinking
coffee soared to the highest level in five years,” said Robert
Nelson, president and chief executive of the National Coffee
Association. The NCA’s 2003 drinking study found that there were
166.6 million Americans who drank coffee, up 5.2 million from 2002
and 8.6 million more than in 1999, Nelson said.