The global coffee market has gone through significant transformations in the last few decades, rapidly moving towards fair trade. It might come as a surprise, but the UK has become one of the largest consumers of fair trade coffee. Although British people are well known as tea lovers of the highest order, recent figures are indicating that coffee is threatening to overtake tea as the UK's ?national drink.

According to research done by Market Inspector, the United Kingdom is the 9th largest coffee importer in the world with imported 3.3% of the global coffee supply, which corresponds to nearly 185,000 tonnes. Even though the British people are not the biggest coffee consumers, the UK has an enormous impact on the world's coffee market.

Since Vietnam became the second largest coffee producer in the world in the 1990's, the coffee market has changed dramatically. As a result of the oversupply, the price of coffee dropped to its lowest levels. These processes led to extremely unpleasant consequences for small coffee producers. Coffee farmers from Africa, South America and Asia have been suffering ever since.

Keeping in mind that smallholders produce 80% of the world's coffee, fair trade became increasingly important. It serves as a guarantee that producers will be provided with better deals for their work. When it comes to retail sales of fair trade products, the UK is an absolute leader.

The Raising of the UK Fair Trading

The number of coffee shops in the UK is rapidly growing, exceeding 16,000 in 2014 and as statistics indicates will reach 20,000 until 2018. Additionally, the second biggest player in the coffee shop business in the UK is one of the largest purchasers of fair trade certified coffee, as well as many of the independent coffee shops.

The fair trading has also been put under a lot of pressure. For instance, when a customer buys a cup of coffee, only a small percentage of the final price is going to the coffee producer. However, fair trade is constantly developing to respond the need for socially sustainable coffee production.

Hope For Small Coffee Producers

It is difficult to explain why coffee culture has become so popular among British people. However, there is no doubt that coffee shops are offering a wide range of high quality coffee drinks and Brits love them. Somehow, UK coffee lovers are unconsciously giving hope to 25 million small coffee producers, who do not have the support of their local governments and business sectors. Many coffee producers are forced to work under unacceptable conditions, but still doing their best so that we can drink coffee of the highest quality.