Asia’s coffee boom: the new centre of gravity?
Sarah Charles
December 5, 2025
Asia coffee
Asia’s coffee demand has grown 14.5% since 2018
China’s café market jumped 58% in 2023 to 50,000+ stores, overtaking the US as the world’s largest branded coffee shop market
Indonesia’s domestic consumption has tripled since pre-pandemic years, and India’s coffee industry is set to double by 2030
ASIA has not traditionally been thought of as the engine of global coffee demand. But that is changing fast.
Once peripheral to the world’s coffee economy – more producer than consumer – the region is now experiencing dynamic growth. Consumption is rising at a pace that far outstrips Europe and North America. While coffee consumption there has plateaued, global demand has continued to rise – up 3.4%.
In Asia, consumption has surged 14.5% over the same period, reflecting coffee’s shift into the mainstream. Local chains are expanding across borders; and Japanese operators, long known for their meticulous kissaten – tea-drinking now turned coffee shop – culture, are racing to plant flags across India, Southeast Asia and beyond.
The shift is structural rather than cyclical. Rising incomes, mobile-first retail, delivery platforms, urbanisation and a young middle class are fuelling a transformation in how Asia drinks, buys and experiences coffee. Vietnam, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, China – each is shaping the region’s coffee map in ways that will redefine global trade and corporate strategy.
Coffee consumption in Asia is expanding at some of the fastest rates in the world. The breakdown at a local level tells its own story.
Vietnam, already the world’s second-largest producer, is now one of its fastest-growing consumer markets. With a population of over 100 million, per capita coffee consumption reaches 2.5-3 kilograms annually – still well below Europe’s 6-8 kilograms, but growing quickly. Vietnam’s café scene is booming. A surge in both homegrown and international chains has fuelled demand for higher-quality coffee and more sophisticated menus. Today, more than 500,000 cafés – from tiny neighbourhood spots to modern chains – make coffee one of the country’s fastest-evolving consumer markets.
Indonesia, once primarily a producer, is now Asia’s breakout success. Consumption has tripled since before the pandemic, reaching 4.8 million bags – enough to make it the fifth-largest coffee consumer globally, on track to surpass Japan.
“In Indonesia, ordering drinks through delivery apps like GoFood has become second nature. It really took off during the pandemic, and the momentum never slowed – it’s fast, affordable, and incredibly convenient,” says Francisca Indarsiani, President of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance chapter in Indonesia and IWCA Regional Coordinator for Asia and Oceania.
“At the same time, the rise of home-based work has made cafés the new social hub. People want comfortable places to meet colleagues, work remotely, or simply hang out with friends. That shift has helped create a vibrant coffee culture, especially among young people and the working-age population. Instead of hosting at home, we gather in cafés – they’ve become the go-to space for both productivity and connection.”
India is also undergoing a transformation. Though per-capita consumption remains low, its vast population and rapidly expanding café culture mean small increases have outsized effects. Its coffee industry is set to double by 2030, driven by a young, urban middle class.
The Philippines and Southeast Asia more broadly – home to fast-growing chains like Jollibee-owned Highlands Coffee – is rapidly growing its coffee sector. Jollibee itself has announced double-digit growth, driven by aggressive store openings and an appetite for sweet, dairy-heavy beverages.
And then there is China, reportedly becoming a driver of global coffee demand. Its coffee consumption has surged by nearly 150% over the past decade. According to Circana, coffee servings there jumped 15% year-over-year as of May 1, 2024 – compared with just 3% growth in the U.S. China overtook the United States in 2023 as the largest market for branded coffee shops, with more than 50,000 outlets, driven by chains such as Luckin Coffee – which alone opened one store every two hours in 2023 – and by a new wave of boutique roasters and experimental beverage formats. Affordability, digitised ordering and hyper-speed retail innovation have made coffee a mainstream ritual for the first time.
Asian consumers aren’t merely adopting global trends – they’re producing their own: Indonesia’s es kopi susu, China’s salted cheese foam teas, and Vietnam’s robusta cold brew are some that come to mind.
For global brands and exporters, Asia is becoming the industry growth engine.
From exporting coffee to exporting café culture
The rise of Japan’s coffee chains across Asia captures a broader shift: the region is now trading not just in beans, but in formats, standards and café concepts.
Japan, with its kissaten traditions of meticulous service and craftsmanship, has been rapidly expanding its culture. Coffee-Kan plans to open its first Indian outlet by 2027 and hopes to reach 60 stores by 2030. C-United – owner of Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Japan – expects an average spend of around JPY 2,000 (US$13) per customer, far above typical Southeast Asian averages. Doutor Coffee, meanwhile, is preparing to launch its Kanno Coffee format in Taiwan by early 2026, positioning itself at the premium end of a market undergoing rapid expansion.
All are betting on a simple premise: Asia’s rising middle class is increasingly willing to pay for “affordable luxury” – calm interiors, attentive service, craft beverages and elevated pastries, but also experiences that blend the digital and physical worlds effectively. Japanese operators, with their emphasis on detail and hospitality, slot neatly into that demand. And China, South Korea, Singapore and Japan have mastered digital retail.
“People are divided into those who come more to world-renowned brands like Starbucks, and those who are fanatical about local Indonesian brands like Gayo, Java, and Toraja, and others,” says Francisca.
“It’s important to introduce coffee lovers to the different tastes and aromas of local coffee origins, and the difference between the specialty coffee and house blends, brewing techniques, and serving sophistication. A successful move for Indonesia has been to leverage the e-commerce platform.”
Yet the traffic is hardly one-way. Local chains are expanding outward with equal ambition. Luckin Coffee and Cotti Coffee are already venturing into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, leveraging ultra-fast store rollouts and low-price, high-volume strategies.
% Arabica – Japanese in origin but backed by Asian capital – has become a regional status symbol, its minimalist storefronts now fixtures in 13 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, where it counts 154 stores overall. Indonesian chains, too, like Kopi Kenangan, are beginning to test regional waters, exporting their sweet, iced coffee formats to neighbouring markets where palates align.
Asia’s transformation from exporter to consumer is perhaps most visible in China, where domestic cafés increasingly compete with global specialty and premium roasters. Cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen now set beverage trends for the region, pioneering customisation, tech-enabled convenience and experiential café design.
What is emerging is a fully fledged Asian coffee ecosystem that is increasingly shaping the direction of the global market.
How Asia’s boom will reshape global coffee markets
As consumption cools in Europe and North America, Asia is set to generate most of the world’s coffee demand growth over the next decade. That shift could redraw trade routes, reshape brand strategies and tilt the balance of power within the industry.
For producers, the implications are significant. Countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam – historically geared toward export markets – gain resilience when more coffee is consumed domestically. A strong home market can soften the blow of global price swings and can potentially offer farmers greater bargaining power.
“Even though there is growing coffee consumption, the global price and harvest conditions, which are often affected by seasonal challenges – such as longer wet seasons – determine the business prospects at the farmers’ level, regardless,” says Francisca.
“Roasters are key actors and are still limited in number, and the increase in consumption creates high incentives for them. The limited public roasters are in high demand. The more often the public is exposed to different global exhibitions that introduce various coffee origins globally and their varieties, the more the demand for imported coffees increases.”
Rising demand in China adds further absorption capacity, tightening regional supply and reducing Asia’s dependence on Western buyers.
Retail dynamics are shifting just as dramatically. International chains still view Asia as their most important battleground, but they increasingly compete with local operators that enjoy lower costs, sharper cultural instincts and faster innovation cycles. Business models pioneered in China – QR-code ordering, mobile loyalty ecosystems, frictionless pick-up counters – have become standard across Southeast Asia and are now influencing global café design.
These changes also have cultural consequences. Asia’s taste for iced, sweet, customisable beverages is already shaping menus in the United States and Europe, where “Asian-inspired” flavours and formats are becoming commonplace. Oatly’s recent “Future of Taste” report pinpoints East and Southeast Asian trends taking over the global beverage market. Flavour direction is beginning to flow east to west.
Investment patterns will adjust accordingly. Roasting plants are multiplying in Southeast Asia to serve both domestic and regional markets. Ready-to-drink factories are scaling up to capture demand at home and abroad. Cross-border acquisitions – both within Asia and between Asian and Western chains – are becoming more frequent, and venture capital is pouring into café tech, automation and beverage R&D.
The world’s most dynamic coffee consumers are now in Asia’s sprawling, youthful megacities, where rising incomes, mobile-first retail and fast-changing tastes are reinventing the industry from the ground up.
Coffee Intelligence