Customs duty on coffee imports and coffee tax
Germany earns about one billion euros through annual levies on products containing roasted coffee. These enormous revenues come from 2 different sources:
Customs duty on already roasted coffee
Did you know that? There is an import duty on coffee to protect the domestic processing industry because only the import of unprocessed green coffee from all countries is duty-free. Roasted coffee and all other coffee products account for between 7.5 and 9 percent, an instrument that has successfully protected its own coffee market for centuries.
It was only in 2007 that the European import duty of 30% on roasted coffee for Ethiopia and other developing countries was abolished. This meant that for the first time these countries had the chance to keep the whole value chain of their product in the country.
A good example of Direct Fairtrade is the Solino brand. Read more.
Coffee tax in Germany
The state's cashing in. Germany is one of the very few EU countries that still have a coffee tax. For domestic sales, an additional Euro 2.19 per kilo for roasted coffee and Euro 4.78 per kilo for soluble coffee are due.