Article | Apr 23, 2021
Good coffee time: Sale of grinders and accessories increases
No one expected this to happen with the pandemic. The sale, grain or ground, of Peruvian coffee grew during this very hard time for the country, and preparing the drink at home began to become an increasingly frequent habit. Suddenly, having a grinder, manual or electric, was no longer just a matter of coffeelovers or very knowledgeable in coffee.
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The figures show an important growth in the sale of grinders and accessories, as shown by the data from the Chamber of Coffee and Cacao, and the entrepreneurs who offer these products, as well as the specialized stores have had to advertise -how on few occasions- that various accessories related to coffee were exhausted, starting with the articles to transform the grain into powder to make our drink.
For the Chamber, consumers show a growing interest in experimenting with preparing their hot drinks at home: “Even small businesses experiment with methods to attract customers. This has promoted the sale of hand-operated grinders and devices for the preparation of tea or coffee ”. The import value of these products increased by 8% in the 2019-20 period.
The mills were the first to run out
La Cuisine, located in La Molina, has dedicated almost the entire second floor of the store to items that any coffeelover would love. Renata del Castillo, brand manager of the company, is so happy with the results that they plan to expand the space for coffee makers. “Since the pandemic began, we have seen the sale of coffee supplies increase. We have Hario, Bodum, Chemex, and other brands, and they were flying. The mills, especially the manuals, were the first to run out and we are asking for more ”, she says.
On the day of the interview, Renata tells us that the AeroPress Go - the small, accessible and beautiful version of the Aeropress coffee machine - were about to sell out.
During a tour of the store we encountered a number of methods, from the sophisticated Siphon to the simple French press. In addition, we found that they sell varieties of Nacionale coffee, which is produced by small organic producers. "We are ordering quite a lot of this brand because it comes out very well," says one of the vendors.
"Retailers and local businesses sell an assorted stock of hand grinders and appliances. Both are attractive, the former because of their low price, and the latter because they have a variety of functionalities. Both were in more points of sale in 2020. Even the number of companies that supply these products tripled ”, highlights the Chamber of Coffee and Cocoa.
A market that can continue to grow
Alfredo Vargas, manager of Cafeteína -one of the online stores specialized in coffee- argues that in the first months of the pandemic -when the restriction was very strong and stores did not open or were slow to deliver products- people began to look at online businesses that They gave personalized service, and not only in the coffee sector.
After this time, and in the middle of the home office as a daily practice, it led more Peruvians to consume coffee. The houses became offices and even schools, which led many to buy a French press, mill and even an espresso machine: “Before we sold the most basic or well-known things -such as Moka or v60-, and today the people have done more research and opted for a scale to make their coffee, kettles or the Kalita method more perfect ”.
For Vargas, this pandemic has also led the home espresso brewing market to grow. Cafeteína has sold manual, automatic and semi-automatic machines, a situation that had not occurred in this dimension. From his look, "sales can increase much more."
The Chamber specifies: “It is interesting to compare how both product categories have grown in the 2019-20 period: the import growth rate of mills was 40%, which would indicate that their commercialization moved more cosplay shop during the pandemic. There is a greater demand; promoted by consumers interested in participating in the grinding of their food and beverages. In the case of coffee grinding, it implies the exploration of methods to obtain different finishes in the final drink and linked to the increase in the consumption of coffee beans. There is no doubt that now there is more time to be part of the process of preparing ground coffee. The pandemic has created this space ”.
Faced with this increase in the sale of various accessories, Cafeteína developed up to twelve customer orientation videos to better prepare their coffee.
To date, the paper filters for V60 are out of stock at the store. During the pandemic, the Chemex and Aeropress coffee machines were sold out. The Kalita import took 6 months. And the Toddy's - to prepare coldbrew - took two months.
The grinders, Vargas says, have been sold successfully. And although the department stores offer mills even at 89 soles, they are not exactly the best because they destroy the grain. For this reason, Cafeteína is always advising its clients. “Most prefer electric ones because they are easier to use, but those that produce an acceptable or good grind are more expensive. The cheapest manuals are those with ceramic grinding wheels ”, he says. The cheapest grinder he sells costs 150 soles and is the Hario Plus, which is all plastic.
"In general, the sale of coffee has increased, and there are many people who ask for recommendations according to their time or the place where they prepare it," says Vargas. In the online store he sells about 20 Peruvian coffee brands (he started with eight) and 40 varieties of coffee.
Andre Vega, from Dekano, specifies that 15 grinders were sold per month. Today, in times of pandemic, they buy two or three a day: “People are consuming more coffee. What comes out the most besides the mills is the French press and Italian mocha ”.
More interest in specialty coffee
In Dekano various brands of coffee are offered, so their view of the business shows a notable increase in sales, especially due to the delivery they made on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today they do it from Monday to Saturday, and even two routes a day, morning and afternoon.
“There are a lot more people interested in specialty coffee. As a barista they ask me a lot about the type of grinding for the coffee maker they have, and what we do is give them a small workshop or send them a video ”, he details. The cheapest mill they have costs 80 soles. The health crisis did not lead Dekano to close his physical store, in downtown Lima. The opposite happened: orders increased.
Curiously, the tasting kit that comes with a QR code that gives you the tasting card was one of the most popular in Dekano.
A good time for coffee
The devices for preparing tea or coffee, have grown 280% in the 2018/20 period and their market is larger than the mills; And it is that the sale of implements for the preparation of drinks has also been driven by the space that the pandemic has given to innovate in the way they are prepared at home; a space where we also find new actors in local commerce.
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Sources:
1) The tariff heading No. 821100010000 corresponds to Hand Powered Mills, weighing less than 10 kg. Its use is considered for the home or small businesses because of its reduced capacity for grinding.
2) The tariff heading N ° 8516710000 corresponds to Apparatus for the preparation of Tea or Coffee.
3) The import value was calculated based on the query of import declaration by tariff headings N ° 821100010000 and N ° 8516710000; It was worked from the monthly data (FOB value, in US $) classified by importer that was obtained from the specialized search engine of SUNAT http://www.aduanet.gob.pe/cl-ad-consdepa/FrmPrincipal.jsp
4) The number of importing companies for items N ° 821100010000 and N ° 8516710000; It was calculated for the years 2019 and 2020 from the count of the non-repeated RUC numbers of importing companies in the study period
5) The growth rate of the hand-operated grinders corresponds to the Compound Annual Growth Rate for the period 2019-20
6) The growth rate of the equipment for making tea or coffee corresponds to the Compound annual growth rate for the period 2018-20