Key takeaways

• Côte d’Ivoire’s GDP averaged 7% progress between 2012 and 2023, boosting demand for higher-quality espresso.
• The variety of specialty espresso outlets and roasters is rising in Abidjan, the nation’s largest metropolis.
• Superb robusta funding is reshaping Côte d’Ivoire’s espresso potential.
• Vertically-integrated companies are serving to retain home espresso worth.

Côte d’Ivoire has lengthy been a serious international espresso producer, but home espresso consumption has traditionally lagged far behind. Whereas the nation exported 650,000 60kg luggage of espresso in 2024, in response to USDA figures, its home market has remained largely disconnected from the standard potential of the beans it grows.

However this dynamic is starting to alter. As financial progress will increase buying energy, curiosity in specialty espresso is rising in Abidjan. The nation’s financial system grew at a median annual charge of seven% between 2012 and 2023, with estimates for 2024 and 2025 at round 6.5%, in response to the IMF.

This has the potential to remodel how Ivorians take into consideration and expertise espresso. Nevertheless,  most crucially, it presents the chance to retain extra worth in Côte d’Ivoire’s espresso sector.

Hadi Beydoun of Café Continent explains extra.

You might also like our information to the espresso sector in Côte d’Ivoire.

Espresso’s significance in Côte d’Ivoire

Espresso has lengthy performed an important position in Côte d’Ivoire’s nationwide financial system, supported by intensive farms throughout fertile agricultural areas. The truth is, throughout the Seventies, the nation was the world’s third-largest espresso producer after Brazil and Colombia.

However immediately, USDA information rank Côte d’Ivoire among the many world’s high 20 espresso producers, with robusta accounting for the overwhelming majority of output. Two civil wars and a long time of political instability have considerably undermined the nation’s capability to maintain and scale its espresso sector, together with funding in infrastructure and high quality management practices.

Regardless of this legacy of espresso manufacturing, home consumption has historically been restricted to low-cost codecs. For many years, espresso consuming in Côte d’Ivoire has centred on prompt sachets and café noir bought at roadside kiosks – merchandise prioritising affordability and comfort over high quality and flavour.

In consequence, specialty espresso has remained out of attain for a lot of Ivorians, and market progress has been sluggish. 

Nevertheless, this narrative is now shifting. Business stakeholders more and more view Côte d’Ivoire not solely as a serious West African espresso origin but additionally as an rising shopper market with untapped potential for higher-quality espresso.

“Espresso consumption is slowly shifting from prompt Nescafé espresso to the Nespresso capsules,” says Hadi, the founder and common supervisor of Café Continent, the primary specialty espresso firm in Côte d’Ivoire that sources locally-grown espresso. “Shopper shopping for energy has been rising, and Ivorians are an increasing number of uncovered to new merchandise and worldwide affect.”

Specialty espresso tradition is blossoming

Financial progress in Abidjan is creating area for extra premium espresso experiences. Between 2012 and 2024, GDP grew by a median of 6 to 7% per yr, inserting the nation above the sub-Saharan African common, in response to the Institute for Worldwide and Strategic Relations.

A small however rising variety of cafés and roasters are difficult the dominance of prompt espresso by introducing new codecs, brewing strategies, and high quality requirements.

“We’re the primary to advertise specialty espresso tradition right here within the Ivory Coast, not solely with our roastery however with our espresso outlets that showcase high quality, traceability, and hospitality excellence,” says Hadi. “We additionally provide espresso to the nation’s HoReCa sector, pushing the requirements of nice espresso a lot increased, and are in partnership with the OIAC (Worldwide Organisation of Espresso Arts), a globally recognised establishment. 

“As an official certifier, we function a coaching college to award licensed, internationally recognised diplomas,” he provides. “This initiative raises the extent of professionalism for HoReCa companies, whereas guaranteeing superior high quality requirements throughout the whole provide chain.”

Past its consumer-facing cafés, Café Continent operates in private-label manufacturing and franchising, serving to set up infrastructure for specialty espresso’s enlargement in Côte d’Ivoire.

As specialty espresso beneficial properties visibility, shopper schooling has grow to be a crucial element of market improvement. Espresso outlets and roasters are more and more introducing Ivorians to ideas resembling origin differentiation, processing strategies, and third wave brewing methods.

Nevertheless, native style preferences stay clearly outlined. 

“Individuals get pleasure from differing types and sorts of coffees; nevertheless, much less well-liked are very gentle roasts with accentuated acidity,” Hadi observes. “Individuals often go for the everyday espresso roast.”

For specialty espresso enterprise operators, because of this adapting international high quality requirements to native palates is important to constructing sustained demand.

Why worth retention in Côte d’Ivoire’s espresso sector is essential

As Côte d’Ivoire’s specialty espresso sector continues to develop, worth retention has emerged as a central strategic problem. Traditionally, many producing nations have exported inexperienced beans solely to re-import roasted espresso and different completed merchandise at considerably increased costs. Business gamers more and more see vertical integration as key to reversing this pattern.

Café Continent has adopted this method by working throughout the whole provide chain. 

“We consider that controlling all of the steps within the worth chain is essential in an atmosphere the place espresso has by no means been handled as a top quality product,” Hadi explains. “Not solely by making use of totally different processing strategies, but additionally by roasting and packaging espresso in numerous methods.”

This mannequin has direct financial implications at an area degree. Since its launch, Café Continent has created greater than 40 jobs, together with positions for villagers who gather espresso cherries on its farms. “Our robusta processing station will create over 15 new jobs within the close to future,” Hadi provides.

A core focus of the model’s technique is funding in robusta high quality – a espresso species traditionally related to decrease worth. “We attempt to break that predisposition by pushing the bounds of Ivorian robusta,” Hadi tells me.

In the present day, there’s renewed international curiosity in effective robusta, particularly as arabica costs stay comparatively excessive. Providing twice the caffeine of arabica, a extra earthy, daring flavour profile, and better resistance to pests and illness, robusta is attracting funding from producers and roasters alike. Europe alone imported 60,000 tonnes of inexperienced robusta in 2024, and this degree is anticipated to extend as climate situations in Vietnam (the world’s largest robusta producer) enhance for the 2025/26 harvest.

Supporting the push to extend manufacturing

Because the Ivorian authorities invests in quadrupling its annual espresso output, the nation may regain worldwide market share, as international robusta exports are projected to rise in 2026 and past.

To fulfill this rising demand and assist drive high quality, Café Continent has opened a brand new robusta processing facility within the western mountains of Côte d’Ivoire at an altitude of 800 metres above sea degree. 

The positioning at present makes use of pure processing and plans to diversify its methods. “Quickly, we are going to strive totally different strategies, resembling honey and washed,” Hadi explains. “We’re hoping to see the ultimate outcomes by 2027.”

By making use of processing and roasting practices sometimes reserved for arabica, the initiative goals to problem long-standing perceptions of robusta’s high quality ceiling. 

The corporate additionally helps traceability and schooling throughout the provision chain. “We additionally organise occasions and schooling programmes for all provide chain actors and business gamers keen to be taught and take part actively within the nation’s espresso sector,” Hadi notes.

The emergence of specialty espresso tradition in Côte d’Ivoire displays a broader rethinking of how producing nations have interaction with their very own crops. Slightly than exporting worth, companies are more and more in search of to construct home consumption markets that help jobs, expertise improvement, and long-term sustainability.

Because the nation’s specialty espresso outlets and roasters display the industrial and cultural viability of vertically built-in, quality-led fashions, Côte d’Ivoire’s position within the international espresso business will proceed to evolve.

Loved this? Then learn our article on Touba espresso.

Picture credit: Café Continent 

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