Coffee ingestion on average is about a third of that of tap water in North America and Europe. Worldwide, 6.7 million metric tons of coffee were produced annually in 1998–2000, and the forecast is a rise to seven million metric tons annually by 2010.

Brazil remains the largest coffee exporting nation, but Vietnam tripled its exports between 1995 and 1999 and became a major producer of robusta seeds. Indonesia is the third-largest coffee exporter overall and the largest producer of washed arabica coffee. Organic Honduran coffee is a rapidly growing emerging commodity owing to the Honduran climate and rich soil.

In 2013 The Seattle Times reported that global coffee prices have dropped more than 50 percent year-over-year. In ThailandBlack Ivory coffee beans are fed to elephants, whose digestive enzymes remove much of the beans bitter taste. After being collected from their dung, these beans can sell for as much as $1,100 a kilogram making it the most expensive blend in the world. Another blend, Kopi Luwak is made through a similar process after being digested by the Asian Palm Civet; but it is sold for somewhat less at 100-$600 a pound.

Coffee is bought and sold by roasters, investors, and price speculators as a tradable commodity in commodity markets and exchange-traded funds. Coffee futures contractsfor Grade 3 washed arabicas are traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange under ticker symbol KC, with contract deliveries occurring every year in March, May, July, September, and December. Coffee is an example of a product that has been susceptible to significant commodity futures price variations.

Higher and lower grade arabica coffees are sold through other channels. Futures contracts for robusta coffee are traded on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and, since 2007, on the New York IntercontinentalExchange. Coffee has been described by many, including historian Mark Pendergrast, as the world's "second most legally traded commodity." However, this claim has been recently refuted by Pendergrast among others after further research.