Price scale for a coffee and doughnut is... well... surprisingly wide

Sonkamuotka: EUR 0.50. Esplanadi: EUR 5.90.

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By Tapio Mainio in Muonio and Helsinki
     
      Café entrepreneur Sanna Alatalo pours coffee with her granddaughter Jonna in the Lapland village of Sonkamuotka, north of the municipality of Muonio.
      By the highway leading to Kilpisjärvi there is a sign that says: 'Coffee and Doughnut, 50 cents'.
      “The coffee is definitely always fresh. Nothing is worse as an advertisement than bitter coffee”, Alatalo says.
      The price of what is presumably the most affordable coffee and doughnut in the country is explained by the location of the establishment.
      The log building is owned by the entrepreneur. A good coffee moment also sensitizes those stopping by to the Lapland souvenirs available for sale in the shop.
      “Without the coffee offer, people would simply drive by without stopping”, Alatalo says.
     
At the other end of the country  (and by all accounts towards the other end of the price spectrum), waitress Leena Talpila brings coffee and a doughnut to the table at a café in downtown Helsinki.
      The name on the door says “Scandinavian Bistro Salutorget”.
      The windows offer a view of the Esplanadi Park.
      The ambience is peaceful and unhurried. At the next table someone is speaking English.
      “The total is EUR 5.90, of which three euros is for the coffee”, Talpila says.
      “Our prices are not even the highest in Helsinki. We have to make some profit to pay the salaries and the rent”, says managing director Kasperi Saari of Royal Ravintolat Oy, the company that owns the bistro.
      “The price of a cup of coffee includes much more than just the coffee itself: the atmosphere, the surroundings, and the service, which all contribute to the enjoyment of the moment. In Helsinki the salary and rent expenses raise the price level”, says Veli-Matti Aittoniemi, the Executive Vice President of Matkailu- ja ravintolapalvelut MaRa ("Tourism and Restaurant Services”).
      MaRa is the lobbying organisation for the tourism, hotel, and restaurant industries in Finland.
     
In Finland, coffee is always worth its price, regardless of the cost.
      Last year the consumption of roasted coffee was estimated at ten kilograms per capita in Finland.
      For Central Europe the figure was half of that.
      Yet another world record notched up, despite the best efforts of the other Nordics, which occupy four of the other places in the top six along with The Netherlands (5th).
      “The increased price of raw coffee has not manifested itself in declining consumption”, says Regional Director Leif Hellman, from coffee processing company Gustav Paulig.
     
Last year the roasting factories provided Finland with 52 million kilograms of coffee, 41 million kilograms of which was channelled through the retail trade.
      According to estimates, around 40 per cent of all the coffee is drunk in coffee shops and gas station cafés, and the rest at home.
      “What complicates the statistics is the fact that some of the smaller coffee shops buy their coffee from retail stores. A half-kilo packet of ground coffee makes around 50 cups of coffee”, Hellman explains.
      When on special offer, a 500 gm pack of coffee costs around four euros.
      Do the maths.
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 31.5.2011


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ho-hum. Finland continues to have highest per capita coffee consumption in the world (28.3.2011)

See also:
  Coffee price hike digs into pockets of Finns (28.2.2011)

Links:
  List of countries by coffee consumption per capita (Wikipedia)

TAPIO MAINIO / Helsingin Sanomat
tapio.mainio@hs.fi