Going every day to grab a cup of latte, cortado, or even a plain espresso shot from your favorite specialty coffee shop is only one phase of its sophisticated lifecycle. Numerous hours, tremendous dedication, hard work, discipline, and science goes into that cup for it to be presented to the end consumer in the form that reflects all the efforts poured into it. 

What is specialty coffee?

Most people think that using hard to pronounce tools make any coffee a specialty coffee. In reality, for any coffee to be graded as a specialty, it has to go through five lifecycle phases. It is definitely not the work of one entity, as it involves the whole coffee supply chain working together in harmony maintaining and keeping track of standards and specifications from start to finish. The chain starts with the farmers, then green bean buyers, roasters, baristas and finally the cycle is closed with the consumer. It is both an art and science, as simple mistakes at any phase will affect the rest of the phases and thus deliver an undesired cup of coffee.

Saudi market potential

Specialty coffee was introduced to Saudi Arabia in 2013 and it has ever since witnessed a boom. It has become a trend, and its demand just keeps on rising. It can be argued that the specialty coffee trend in  Saudi Arabia was fueled by a number of factors, but most prominently the current economic changes that are encouraging the young generation to pursue new business opportunities. A lot of those entrepreneurs are turning towards opening coffee shops, restaurants, and booths, which is confirmed by statistics over the past few years. 

During the period 2012 to 2017, coffee market in Saudi Arabia achieved a positive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.64% with a total sales value in 2017 of SAR 5,293.90 Million, which represents an increase of 4.57% over 2016 (Hot Coffee Market in Saudi Arabia – Outlook to 2022, Research and Markets, January 2019). Much like everywhere else, the Saudi coffee market was negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but it is starting to get back on track and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.2% during 2021-2027 (Saudi coffee market report, Research and Markets, June 2021). 

In another indication of coffee growing popularity across the country, coffee’s per capita consumption in Saudi Arabia reached 1.79 kg in 2018, which is 0.562 % more than 2017’s per capita consumption. Comparing that to other key players in the region, statistics show that per capita coffee consumption in United Arab Emirates in 2018 amounted to 1.62 kg, 3.56 kg in Jordan, 0.450 kg in Yemen and 0.520 kg in Iraq.

 The question remains, is it a bubble that will eventually burst or will the majority of coffee shops follow the footsteps of specialty coffee?

To answer this core question, we need to look into two main factors that play a major role, which are education and awareness, as there are only a handful of accredited SCA institutes in Saudi Arabia not to mention that there aren’t many SCA certified instructors. So, for Saudi Arabia to catch up to the rest of the world, the educational aspect should be addressed seriously. The country has taken steps in the last decade to unify the requirements through the Saudi Skills Standards (SSS), which baristas and roasters fall under.

To sum it up, I believe that it is here to stay, and that most commercial coffee shops and traders will start to focus more on the specialty aspect to attract the increasing number of specialty coffee fans and consumers.