Coffee Export Data 2026: Buyers, Importers & HS Codes

Coffee just had the most expensive year in its history, and the coffee export data behind it reads like a fever chart. In 2025 the ICO Composite Indicator Price hit an all-time monthly record of 354.32 US cents per pound, and even after cooling it still averaged 304.68 cents/lb in December (ICO). Brazil, the world's number-one origin, shipped a record US$15.6 billion of coffee, up 24.1% in value on a volume drop of more than 20%. Every one of those shipments crossed a border under HS code 0901.

Here is what most coffee exporters miss. The roasters, importers and traders paying those record prices are listed by name, country and volume inside global shipment records. The buyer behind a container of green beans in Hamburg or a soluble-coffee order in Osaka sits in a dataset, ranked by how much they buy each year. This guide breaks down the 2026 numbers and shows how to read that data to find coffee buyers before your competitors do.

What 2025 coffee export data shows about the price shock

Coffee is a weather trade, and 2025 was the year the weather won. Drought in Brazil's arabica belt and tighter robusta supply out of Vietnam collided with steady global demand, and the price of green coffee simply detached from its long-run range. The I-CIP averaged 354.32 cents per pound in February 2025 — a level the market had never touched on a monthly basis — and although it eased through the back half of the year, December still printed 304.68 cents, historically extreme (ICO December 2025 report).

Prices that high reshape the whole trade. Volumes moved down while values soared, and yet the world still shipped enormous quantities: the ICO logged the biggest annual increase on record in world coffee exports, on the back of a 2023/24 season that had already set an all-time green-bean shipment record of 125.44 million bags. For an exporter, the lesson is blunt: in a market this volatile, the edge belongs to whoever knows which buyers are still shipping — and paying — right now. Price shocks also churn the buyer list. Roasters shorten contracts, swap arabica for robusta blends, or drop out of the rankings within a quarter, so an importer list from 2024 is already stale.

Coffee at record prices doesn't just enrich origins. It rewards the exporter who can name, rank and reach the buyers who are still filling containers while everyone else waits for the market to calm down.

Where the coffee buyers are

Global coffee imports totalled $71.8 billion in 2025, and the demand is heavily concentrated. The United States is the single largest buyer at $12.8 billion (17.8% of world imports), followed by Germany at $8.9 billion (12.4%); Hamburg is Europe's coffee port and a re-export hub for the whole continent. Then come Italy ($4.6B), France ($4.4B) and Japan ($2.55B). Zoom out and Europe alone absorbed $40.8 billion, 56.8% of every coffee dollar spent worldwide.

That concentration is the opportunity. Because US and EU shipments move on publicly reportable bill-of-lading and customs records, coffee export data for those markets names the specific roasters and importers buying green beans into the United States and Germany. You do not need to guess which German roaster is scaling; the records show who took the most bags last quarter and who supplied them. One caution from people who work these records daily: at Hamburg, the consignee on a green-coffee bill of lading is often a trading house or bonded warehouse, not the roaster who ultimately buys. Check the notify party and the shipment cadence before deciding whom to pitch.

Which countries export the most coffee?

Brazil exports the most coffee, with a record $15.6 billion shipped in 2025. Vietnam ranks second at $8.4 billion, followed by Colombia ($5.78B), Ethiopia ($2.65B) and India (roughly $2B). Those five origins supply most of the world's arabica and robusta under HS code 0901.

Brazil remains the anchor of the entire market, shipping from its Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo heartlands and earning 24.1% more despite moving over 20% fewer bags. Vietnam, the robusta powerhouse of the Central Highlands, booked its own record at $8.4 billion. Colombia had a historic year, its $5.78 billion of coffee exports actually surpassing fuel as a foreign-exchange earner. And Ethiopia, the birthplace of arabica, cleared $2.65 billion, later touching a record $3 billion fiscal-year milestone.

India sits just behind that top tier, and its 2025 story is the standout. Indian coffee exports hit an all-time high of $1.2 billion in FY2024-25, up 51%, with calendar-2025 value climbing toward $2 billion. The engine is robusta — more than 70% of the crop — plus instant coffee, which now supplies roughly a third of export earnings. India's grower belts around Chikmagalur and Coorg in Karnataka are the base, and mirrored licensed trade data helps Indian exporters pinpoint which overseas buyers are ready for that robusta and soluble supply. If you are building an outbound plan from India, the same shipment-record approach that maps Brazilian and Vietnamese flows helps you find agro buyers with data-backed targeting.

Coffee export data by HS code: green, roasted, instant

Getting the HS code right is what makes coffee export data usable. Everything green and roasted lives under heading 0901, split into the sub-codes that matter for search:

• 090111 — coffee, not roasted, not decaffeinated. This is green coffee, the arabica and robusta beans that make up the overwhelming majority of world trade.
• 090112 — coffee, not roasted, decaffeinated.
• 090121 — coffee, roasted, not decaffeinated (whole-bean and ground retail/roastery product).
• 090122 — coffee, roasted, decaffeinated; 090190 — husks, skins and coffee substitutes containing coffee.
• 210111 — extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee, i.e. instant/soluble coffee — the category driving India's export jump.

Search the wrong code and you miss half the market; search green (090111) when your buyer wants roasted (090121) and you are pitching the wrong shipments entirely. If HS codes are new to you, start with this guide to finding and using HS codes before you run a single query.

How to find coffee buyers with ShipScout

ShipScout is a global trade-intelligence platform, an affordable alternative to Panjiva and ImportGenius, sitting on 11 billion-plus shipment records across 240+ countries. For a coffee exporter or trader, the workflow from "I have green coffee" to "here are 200 ranked importers" is short:

• Search by HS code 090111 (or 090121 for roasted). Pull every coffee shipment into your target market and see the importers, their counterparties and how often they buy. Start from the company directory and filter to coffee. See exactly how customs data surfaces buyers.
• Rank importers by volume in a target market. Do not chase the 20-bag hobby roaster when a German importer is moving containers monthly. Sort by tonnage and call the top of the list first.
• Vet the supplier's real trade record. Before you trust a counterparty's quote, check their actual shipment history — origins, volumes, consistency. Here is how to verify an international supplier before you pay.
• Reach the decision-makers. Move from company to contact intelligence (where available) so your pitch lands with the person who signs the purchase order, not a generic inbox.

The data-backed approach beats blind outreach every time: instead of guessing at a trade fair, you target buyers on real shipment evidence. If you export green, roasted or instant coffee, your buyer list is already sitting inside coffee export data. You just have to open it. Start a free trial and search HS code 090111 to see who is importing coffee right now.