Robusta Coffee
ICE
The hardy, bitter bean from Vietnam that powers the world's instant coffee and espresso blends.
Top Producers
share of 2025/26 robusta production
Top Consumers
approximate share of robusta consumption
Main Uses
robusta consumption by product form
Top Exporters
share of 2025/26 robusta exports
Top Importers
share of robusta imports
World robusta production
roughly 75 to 80 million 60-kg bags
as of 2025
Vietnam's share
well over a third of world robusta
as of 2025
Record price
roughly $5,800 per tonne (first reached September 2024, all-time print February 2025)
as of 2025
Share of world coffee
roughly 40 to 45 percent and rising
as of 2025
Robusta is the tougher coffee species: higher caffeine, more bitterness, grown at lower altitudes in hotter climates, and roughly 40 to 45 percent of world coffee production. Vietnam dominates it the way Brazil dominates arabica, growing roughly 28 to 30 million bags a year in the Central Highlands, with Brazil's conilon crop second and Indonesia, Uganda, and India following. Robusta goes into instant coffee, espresso blends where its crema and punch are valued, and increasingly into mainstream roasts as roasters blend down costs. The benchmark contract is the ICE Robusta Coffee future in London, 10 tonnes quoted in dollars per tonne, the direct descendant of the LIFFE contract that ICE absorbed when it bought NYSE Euronext's London derivatives business in 2013.
Robusta wrote its own record book in 2024. Drought and heat in Vietnam's Central Highlands during the 2023-2024 El Nino, compounded by farmers switching land to durian orchards and holding back stocks as prices rose, drove London robusta from under $2,000 per tonne in early 2023 to roughly $5,800 per tonne in September 2024, a level matched again at the all-time print in February 2025. The rally upended the trade's oldest assumption, that cheap robusta always caps arabica, because for stretches of 2024 robusta in London was historically expensive against New York arabica, and blenders had nowhere to hide. Prices retreated through 2025 as Vietnamese and Brazilian conilon supply recovered, but the episode established robusta as a market that can lead, not just follow. The EU deforestation regulation matters intensely here too, since the EU is the largest robusta buyer and Vietnamese smallholder traceability is hard.
How It Trades
| Venue | ICE Futures Europe (London) |
| Benchmark contract | Robusta Coffee futures (RC) |
| Contract size | 10 tonnes |
| Price terms | US dollars per tonne |
| Settlement | Physical delivery of exchange-graded robusta in ICE-licensed warehouses in Europe and origin-adjacent locations |
| Typical curve | Carry in surplus; the 2023-2024 Vietnamese shortage produced one of the steepest backwardations in the contract's history |
| Liquidity | Liquid benchmark for world robusta; smaller than the New York arabica contract but with deep commercial participation |
Where It Trades
approximate share of global robusta futures volume, 2025
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- Vietnam: roughly 28 to 30 million bags, well over a third of world robusta
- Brazil (conilon): roughly 20 to 24 million bags and growing
- Indonesia: roughly 9 to 10 million bags
- Uganda: roughly 6 to 7 million bags
- India: roughly 4 million bags
Vietnam's Central Highlands crop is irrigated through a sharp dry season; reservoir levels in February and March are the market's key early-warning indicator.
Top consumers
- European Union (largest robusta importer)
- United States
- Brazil (domestic blends)
- Asia's fast-growing instant-coffee markets (Indonesia, Philippines, India, China)
Major uses
- Instant and soluble coffee, the traditional core demand
- Espresso blends
- Cost-reduction blending into mainstream roast and ground products
What Moves the Price
- Vietnamese Central Highlands weather: dry-season irrigation water and October-January harvest rains
- Vietnamese farmer selling behavior and stockholding, increasingly financed and patient
- Brazilian conilon crop growth, the rising second supply
- The arbitrage to New York arabica, which sets blending substitution
- ICE-certified robusta stock levels
- EU deforestation regulation compliance for smallholder supply chains
- Land-use competition in Vietnam, including conversion to durian and pepper
Moments That Made the Market
1958
London robusta futures begin trading, the market that later became LIFFE's coffee contract.
1994
Vietnam's post-reform coffee expansion accelerates; within a decade it is the world's second producer.
2008
Robusta peaks in the commodity supercycle, then collapses with the financial crisis.
2013
ICE acquires NYSE Liffe; London robusta becomes an ICE Futures Europe contract.
2023-2024
El Nino drought in Vietnam plus farmer withholding drives robusta from under $2,000 to a record around $5,800 per tonne in September 2024.
2025
A final record print of roughly $5,800 per tonne comes in February; recovering Vietnamese and conilon supply then pulls prices back, keeping a structural premium to pre-2023 levels.
What Changed Since the 2010 Handbook Era
- LIFFE disappeared into ICE in 2013; the London contract survived but the venue, clearing, and quotation moved to ICE Futures Europe.
- Robusta broke its half-century price range in 2024, at times trading historically rich to arabica instead of at a deep discount.
- Brazil's conilon expansion created a credible second origin, slowly diluting Vietnam's pricing power.
- Quality robusta ("fine robusta") emerged as a premium segment, blurring the old quality hierarchy.
- EU traceability rules made smallholder supply-chain documentation a market factor for the first time.