STiR coffee and tea magazine

STiR coffee and tea 39 Tea expertise. Use that knowledge to your benefit. With our outstanding experience in tea buying and blend development, we offer you high-quality teas, sophisticated for- mulations and latest tea innovations. Independently. Personally. Since 1992. Get an impression of us: www.kktee.de "Today we are the fourth biggest producer in the Baltics, with a continuous growth, and are market leaders regarding whole beans in Latvia," said Mucenieks of Löfbergs. "This year we go live with e-commerce in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia which will boost our growth. According to Mucenieks, despite the pandemic total coffee consumption in the region dropped only 3% in 2021 compared to the previous year (being mainly driven by a decline regarding ground coffee by 8%). However, "as in many other markets in Europe, whole beans are increasing by 17%. This has a positive impact of the growth of Löfbergs, and we see that our slow- roasted beans from carefully selected sustainably farms is ap- preciated by an increasing number of consumers in the Baltics," said Mucenieks. In the meantime, in addition to Löfbergs, Paulig – another major player in the region – also plans to accelerate its expan- sion in the Baltics coffee market this year. According to Rainer Tammet, commercial director retail Baltics at Paulig, the com- pany has been operating in the Baltic countries for 30 years and is the leading coffee brand in Estonia and Lithuania, and among the top five in Latvia. "The coffee market in the Baltics was stable in terms of volume in 2021: Estonia +1%, Lithuania +0%, Latvia -2%," said Tammet in an exclusive interview. "Ground coffee was in a slight decrease with -5%, and beans grew +16%. The latter is a trend, as coffee beans segment has grown rapidly during recent years in the Baltic countries. This trend goes hand in hand with the growing sales of household automatic coffee machines. The share of coffee beans is the highest in Estonia with 38% of the total coffee market, in Latvia 22%, and in Lithuania 14%." According to Tammet, the company is aware of these trends, planning a further increase of its local output and expansion the range. Tammet has also added as part of this, in 2021, Paulig Ar- abica beans coffee range was extended by bringing a new Paulig Arabica Selected coffee to the market in the Baltic countries. In general, according to Tammet, as well as some other in- terviewed producers and analysts, the Baltic coffee market is very competitive, with several international producers, as well as local artisan coffee roasteries. In general, according to analysts and producers, during the pandemic, retail consumption of cof- fee in the Baltics region remained stable, but there was a clear decline in offices and horeca sector. After lifting the restrictions, the horeca coffee consumption in the Baltics region is steadily recovering. In regard of taste preferences and market structure, Marta Piigli, commercial director from out-of-home Baltics at Paulig said the taste preferences in three countries differ: Estonians like their coffee fruity, Latvians more chocolatey, and Lithu- anians prefer a mellow taste – to generalize a little. But the three nations share do share some similarities in coffee consumption. "The three Baltic nations like to be on the move and the importance of convenience is continuously growing," said Piigli. "The younger generations are shaping the market going forward as they consume somewhat differently compared to the older generations. Some of current trends are: experimenting with tastes, new ways to prepare coffee, the rise of cold coffee-based drinks and take-away, and the importance of sustainable choices." In the meantime, other global coffee majors also consider acceleration of their expansion in the region in years to come. For example, Starbucks significantly strengthened its position in the region, with the biggest attention being paid to the seg- ment of coffee capsules. The company places big hopes on its further expansion in the Baltics region, which is mainly due to the ever growing popularity of coffee machines in households of all three Baltic countries and the ever growing use of coffee capsules by local customers. Analysts believe that coffee consumption in the Baltics re- gion will continue to grow, although it will be affected by infla- tion and general increase of food prices. The biggest growth is expected in consumption of whole bean coffee. At the same time the demand for ground coffee will also grow. At present the share of instant coffee in the region is about 20%, while coffee in capsules is up to 5% of the market.

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