Canada's Green Coffee Surge: Unpacking the Import Data

My intention to have a Canadian take on coffee hasn’t quite met the mark since the first couple of articles and I'd like to get back to that with an update on the volume of green coffee being imported into Canada.

The primary HS Codes to import green or unroasted coffee are:

• 0901.11.00.20 - Coffee, not roasted, not decaffeinated, not certified organic

• 0901.12.00.00 — Coffee, not roasted, decaffeinated

• 0901.11.00.10 — Coffee, not roasted, not decaffeinated, certified organic

Harmonized System (HS) codes are developed by the World Customs Organization (WCO) and used across the world for the import and export of goods.

From Statistics Canada much information can be found about the quantity and dollar value of green coffee beans.

The following is how many kilograms of unroasted, not decaffeinated and not certified organic coffee is imported into Canada over the last 5 years.

• 2020: 161,421,818 kg

• 2021: 168,611,427 kg

• 2022: 173,037,944 kg

• 2023: 157,792,803 kg

• 2024 (up to April): 59,823,816 kg

It’s also fascinating to know which countries import the highest volume of green coffee and the chart below shows us the last 5 years (2024 only includes up to April)

The value of this imported coffee ranges each month from a low $43 Million (Nov 2019) to a high of $121 Million (April 2022).

There are a number of large, medium and small scale coffee roasters. I won’t be able to name them all but I will dive into a lot more specialty coffee roasters as we progress.

The large scale and major coffee roasters in Canada include: Tim Hortons, Second Cup, McDonalds Canada, Kicking Horse, Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee, Van Houtte Coffee Services, Club Coffee (Private Label Roaster), Java Works, Café West Island, Bridgehead Coffee and Balzac's Coffee Roasters

If anyone needs help finding the data or wants to look at it more closely, email or find me on LinkedIn.