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MILAN – European coffee imports are recovering, but are still far from pre-pandemic levels, Germany and Italy are strengthening their leadership, while stock levels remain very low. This information comes from the European Coffee Report 2024/25, the valuable statistical compendium compiled by the European Coffee Federation (ECF) now in its 42nd edition.
The report’s figures show a significant increase in green coffee imports to Western Europe – an entry comprising the 27 EU countries, plus the UK, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland – which grew by 8.1% last year compared to 2023, reaching 55,124,694 bags.
Of these, 48,278,322 bags (+9.2%) were imported by the EU. Germany confirmed its position as Europe’s largest importer, returning – after a drop the previous year – above the 1 million tonne mark.
In 2024, German imports amounted to 17,681,347 bags, compared to just over 15 million in 2023 — an increase of 17.8% year-on-year.
Italy followed at a considerable distance, with 10,567,337 bags imported last year — a 2% increase compared to 2023. Imports from Belgium decreased by 3.8% to 4,476,273 bags. Meanwhile, Spain‘s imports recovered sharply (+12.2%) to reach 4,312,332 bags. Imports from the Netherlands continued to grow (+18.8%), reaching 3,119,402 bags.
France remained largely stable (-1.7%) at 2,435,070 bags. Sweden’s imports rose again to 1,417,590 bags (+1.8%).
There were strong increases for Portugal (+22.7%) and Finland (+9.8%), with 877,832 and 840,672 bags respectively imported.
As mentioned above, imports by the 27 EU countries grew by 9.2% compared to 2023 to reach 48,278,322 bags.
However, this figure is still below that of 2022 and, more importantly, below pre-pandemic levels (53,814,833 bags, excluding the UK, in 2018). Outside the EU, Switzerland increased its coffee imports by almost one million bags (31.8%), totalling 4,011,507 bags. On the other hand, imports by the United Kingdom decreased by 10.7% to 2,391,768 bags.
Import figures for Eastern Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine) are only available up to 2023 and totalled 1,393,936 bags in that year. 
This brings Europe‘s total for 2023 to 51,833,670 bags, which is a sharp drop of 9.7% from 2022.
According to the report, green coffee imports into Europe have shrunk by more than 18% in absolute terms during the 2016-2024 period.
The table below lists the ‘top 20’ countries of origin for green coffee imported into the EU27 area as a whole (excluding intra-EU trade) during the analysis period (2022-2024).
EU consumption in 2023 is estimated at a total of 2.53 million tonnes, about 42.2 million bags, up 1.6% on 2022. Germany (8.67 million; +0.7%) is the top consuming country followed by France (5.9 million; +1.2%) and Italy (5.45 million bags; +1.4%).
Following substantial replenishment in the second half of 2024, green coffee stocks in major European ports decreased again during the first months of 2025. By the end of April, they stood at 424,403 tonnes (7,073,383 bags), approximately half the level observed in autumn 2022.
The most represented type is Robusta (156,060 tonnes, or 2,601,000 bags), followed by Natural Arabica (134,596 tonnes, or 2,243,267 bags) and Washed Arabica (133,748 tonnes, or 2,229,133 bags).
