SIC 2095 Roasted Coffee

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT.
• ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE.
• BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT.
• CURRENT CONDITIONS.
• INDUSTRY LEADERS.
• AMERICA AND THE WORLD.
• RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY.
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 2095

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in roasting coffee and in manufacturing coffee concentrates and extracts in powdered, liquid, or frozen form, including freeze-dried. Coffee roasting by wholesale grocers is covered in SIC 5149: Groceries and Related Products, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS CODE(S)

311920

Coffee and Tea Manufacturing

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Beginning in the early 1990s, small and large coffee roasters enjoyed strong markets. Coffee consumption also was brisk, with coffee shops maintaining their presence throughout the country. Thus, companies like Starbucks achieved positive growth and other players entered the specialty coffee market. By the mid-2000s, coffee was the second largest import, second only to oil, and one-fifth of the world's total coffee was consumed by Americans. According to National Coffee Association research, more than 50 percent of adults across the country drink coffee daily. Ground coffee was most commonly used, followed by instant and specialty coffee mixes. In 2003 packaged coffee accounted for almost 93 percent of the market share, with ready-to-drink (RTD) varieties accounting for the remaining 7 percent.

Coffee has not always enjoyed its recent level of popularity. Between 1970 and 1980, U.S. per capita consumption of coffee in gallons had dropped from 33.4 to 26.7, although it held steady at that approximate rate throughout the 1980s. At an estimated 1.75 cups, daily per capita consumption of coffee in 1991 was a far cry from that of the all-time high of 3.1 cups reached in 1962. The advent of specialty coffees seemed to signal a turnaround in the coffee industry. Having in past decades exported a taste for instant coffee, the United States began importing a demand for specialty coffees. By the 2000s both daily and occasional consumption of specialty coffee was increasing, and per capita consumption exceeded 4 kg.

Despite the explosive growth of specialty coffee, by the mid-2000s the traditional brands still held the lion's share of the market. Folgers was the top brand, with nearly one-fourth of the market, followed by Maxwell House with just under one-fifth. Coffee brands from Kraft and Procter & Gamble each had one-third of the market.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

Due to a climate that cannot support coffee trees in areas other than Hawaii and Puerto Rico, U.S. production of coffee beans has been negligible. Instead the United States has become the largest importer of the beans, purchased from producing nations through traders. For this reason traders play an important role in the U.S. coffee industry, albeit one constrained by their obligation to serve the requirements of roasters. Thus, the National Coffee Association (NCA), formed in the early 1970s, is dominated by the roasters.

Processing of coffee beans is performed by manufacturers that roast the beans for packaging. Also, roasters often further process the beans to be sold for brewing and instant coffee. At least until the mid-1980s, coffee produced in the United States was thought to be inferior to that of other countries. Some industry observers attributed this to the dominance of multinational conglomerates within the industry, which were preoccupied with profits and quantity instead of quality processing.

BACKGROUND AND DEVELOPMENT

The U.S. coffee industry can be traced back to the seventeenth century, when coffeehouses, already quite popular in Europe, began to open in the colonies. Indeed, Revolutionary War strategy was often plotted in these establishments. At that time, only whole coffee beans were available, and these were sold from a barrel to be blended and ground in the home for boiling.

This method of preparing coffee proved its inconvenience during the Civil War, when transporting beans and grinders was quickly found to be unwieldy. As an alternative, coffee was made into a sort of concentrate by grinding it into a pulp that was shaped into bricks and allowed to harden. This preparation allowed soldiers to slice off an appropriate amount for boiling. In the meantime, however, entrepreneurs saw an opportunity. By roasting, blending, grinding, and packaging the coffee for sale, they offered consumers a welcome convenience.

Coffee beans are mainly categorized into two major varieties: arabica and robusta. Arabica beans are the most...