Global coffee consumption is expected to rise steadily next year despite the economic slowdown to match the 2.5 percent annual average growth seen in the past decade, a senior industry executive said on Thursday. "Consumption is going to be very well despite the economic turbulence," Roberto Olivier Silva, executive director of the London-based International Coffee Organisation (ICO) told Reuters in an interview.
The London-based ICO does not have any specific estimates, Silva said on the sidelines of an international coffee conference in Ho Chi Minh City. Doubts that Europe could forge a deal to end its prolonged debt crisis forced down the commodities complex, with the January robusta contract falling $57 to close at $1,953 a tonne on Wednesday.