The Swiss government revealed its plan to change the coffee policy in the country, BBC reported. Swiss Federal Office for National Economic Supply declared the roasted beans “not essential” for human survival, so, the stockpiles of coffee will be significantly decreased in the years to come.
Switzerland has its own emergency stockpile of coffee, the country has started to store this product after World War One, seeing coffee as one of the essential things. Such status of coffee made it very popular, annually, the Swiss are big fans of coffee. According to the International Coffee Organization, the Alpine-nation is consuming about 9kg per person per year.
Switzerland began storing emergency reserves of coffee between World War One and World War Two in preparation for potential shortages. It continued in subsequent decades to combat shortages sparked by war, natural disasters or epidemics.
Currently, Switzerland has 15,300 tonnes saved up, and that’s enough to last the country for three months. However, keeping the emergency stockpile is no longer a popular practice, said government. It now hopes to end the practice by late 2022 because coffee is “not essential for life”, thus, there is no need to include it in the emergency reserves.
Coffee is not a necessary product for Switzerland’s emergency stockpile
According to the latest assessment conducted by the Federal Office for National Economic Supply, coffee contains almost no calories and therefore does not contribute, from the physiological perspective to safeguarding nutrition. In other words, coffee is almost useless for the diet of the average Swiss.
The final decision on coffee expected in November, but Reservesuisse, which oversees Switzerland’s food stockpiles, says 12 of 15 companies that stockpile coffee in the country want to continue doing so.
