Helsinki, Oct 3 - Russians, known for their tea-drinking culture, are starting to switch to coffee, with demand for roasted coffee set to grow more than 10 percent this year, Finnish roaster Paulig said on Tuesday.
Finland's top roaster said last month that it had decided to set up a coffee roasting plant in Russia as it seeks to build on its leading position in a growing market and offset stagnant demand in its home market.
Russians consume more than 100,000 tonnes of coffee a year but only 20 percent of that is roasted ground coffee, the rest is instant.
Russian coffee consumption has grown 10 to 15 percent a year in recent years although industry sources put the pace closer to 3 to 5 percent now, German commodities analyst F.O. Licht said in a recent report.
"It must be over 10 percent for roasted coffee," Paulig's purchasing manager Jouko Pihkanen told Reuters in an interview.
"However, they say it's a niche product. Instant coffee is much bigger than roasted ground coffee and it is a tea-drinking nation," he said.
Closely held Paulig, like other coffee companies, is seeking to benefit from growing consumption in new markets like Russia and Eastern Europe to offset stable demand in Western Europe and North America.