Romania 26th European country in terms of coffee consumption

The Romanian coffee market reached 420 million euros in 2014, with an annual average per capita consumption of 2.3 kilograms, placing the country 26th in Europe by this indicator, according to a recent study released on Thursday by PwC Romania.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

The research showed a 9 percent annual increase of the coffee consumption in Romania in 2000-2009, in an economic growth context. The market then lost 8 percent per year in 2009-2011, before reaching a plateau.

The consumption in 2014 was slightly below the 2013 level, yielding an estimate tax collection to the state budget of 64 million euros. In 2013, excises on coffee amounted to 51.7 million euros, which was 0.2 percent of the total 21.1 billion lei income from such extra taxes.

'Eliminating the excise tax on coffee would result in a price decrease, thus encouraging the consumption and the development of the coffee market. The impact of this measure on the consolidated central budget would be neutral, as the loss of 0.2 percent of collected income would be compensated horizontally by other taxes and duties collected as a result of the growth of the coffee industry,' PwC's study concludes.

The average annual coffee consumption per capita in Europe is 4 kilograms. Researchers say this low value is owed to the relatively high price, given the purchasing power, and to the uneven VAT and excise on green coffee beans, roasted coffee (including mixes with surrogates) and soluble coffee (including surrogate mixes).

Bogdan Belciu, management consultancy partner of PwC Romania, mentioned an average price of coffee of 8.6 euros per kilogram in Romania in 2013; cutting the excise and VAT would result in lower prices, by as much as 70...