In 2024 El Salvador exported coffee worth 137.1 million dollars, about 10 million less than in 2023 (−6.8%). In volume, the drop was 6.3%: 27.4 million kilos versus 29.2. The quintal was paid, on average, 232.47 dollars, almost the same as the previous year. Read cold, the numbers look like a step back. Read with a cup in hand, they describe an origin that still chooses demanding destinations.

The United States bought 59.1 million dollars. Next came Belgium (15.7), Italy (8.6), Saudi Arabia (7.3), and Japan (6.6). This is not a random list. Belgium is Europe’s gateway for specialty roasters. Italy understands espresso. Saudi Arabia has burst onto the contest microlot scene. Japan pays for cleanliness. Salvadoran coffee arrives mostly as green coffee (90.9% in the 2023/24 crop year), but also roasted and soluble: there is industry, not only raw material.

What that map tells the discoverer

It says that the bean from the six regions already has a club of palates. A Bourbon from Apaneca can end up in a Roman espresso; a Pacamara from Metapán, in a filter coffee in Antwerp; a honey from Chalatenango, in a café in Riyadh. Diversity of destinations is an advantage: the country does not depend on a single taste.

The 2024 drop is better understood alongside the climate and aging coffee farms. It does not cancel the prestige. It invites better buying: fewer generic containers, more lots with a farm name. Anyone looking for Café de El Salvador in those markets will find it positioned as a mid-to-high quality origin, with peaks of excellence that the auction teaches every July.

The honest expectation is this: volume may swing; demand for a differentiated cup has not gone away. On the contrary, the destinations of 2024 show that the world already knows where this volcano sits.