South Korea with its millennium of beverage-drinking culture is contemplating surcharging disposable cups that serve coffee, amid hospitality industry hostility.
On January 2, 2026, the government hosted a ‘Cup Price Display System’ agenda mandating cafés to include prices of cups on coffee receipts.
In a bid by the Ministry of Climate, Energy & Environment to reduce waste, affiliate receipts for takeaway cups ought to accompany beverage purchase bills.
If a coffee costs 4,500 Korean won ($3.11), some 4,300 won ($2.91) would bill the drink and the extra 200 won ($0.14) the cup.
Due to its wild popularity, coffee commands 1/3rd national market share among beverages and fosters tens of thousands of cafés.
Café operators are resisting the new policy as costly, citing high closure numbers and rising international coffee prices.
By the end of 2025, 12,000 coffee shops had shut down in the country due to steep import costs for coffee beans, per Chosun news.
International coffee bean prices notably fell by 0.5% day-on-day on December 31, 2025 to $3.48 a pound. But they were still 8.61% dearer than in the corresponding timeline in 2024.
Costly for Restaurant Businesses
Given its prominence as the 12th biggest world importer of coffee beans, as of 2024, South Korea feels the price sting during volatility.
The change to the new receipt system will therefore bring additional costs to cafés over the already high import rates.
According to a restauranteur, altering receipt printing defaults at point of sale systems (POS) and installing new kiosk equipment necessitates hiring expensive vendors.
Another fall out is that the system will have customers querying why they are being billed for cups, antagonizing them with small businesses.
Some feel that even if coffee prices depreciate, consumers will still react negatively to seeing bills for disposable cups.
Luckily, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is deliberating the policy in partnership with the environment ministry to reduce the small business burden. The following stats put café business and consumption in the context of the Korea coffee industry at large.
South Korea Coffee Industry Statistics
South Korea is nicknamed ‘Coffee Republic’ because of its strong coffee consumption culture. The country had over 100,000 cafés selling beverages like coffee in 2023. National coffee consumption levels are at 405 cups per person per year, the second highest worldwide. Conversely, the global coffee consumption per capita averages 152 cups. So popular is the drink in the peninsula that it has a domestic beverage market share of 30.8%, ahead of carbonated drinks with 25.5% share.
The country imports around 194,809 tonnes of raw and roasted coffee beans a year (2024). This is about 2.4% of the worldwide coffee bean import trade, the 12th highest globally and 2nd highest in Asia after Japan.
How much coffee bean value does Korea import annually?
As of 2024, Korea was importing $1.24 billion in coffee beans, up from 2023’s $1.1 billion, according to the Korea Times. The table below keys in sample historical data:
| Year | Import Value |
| 2024 | $1.24 billion |
| 2023 | $1.1 billion |
| 2022 | $1.3 billion |
Does Korea produce tea to supplant coffee?
As compensation for negligible coffee production, Korea produces decent amounts of tea, whose history goes back 1,000 years. In 2024, tea leaf production reached a 5-year high of 18,400 tonnes, according to the FAOSTAT. Green tea output in the Far-East country also topped 4,185 tonnes in 2023.