MATCHA, COFFEE, AND SWISS LOGIC

The other day, while eating a matcha ice cream, I found myself reflecting on the extraordinary global rise of matcha.

It’s everywhere now.

Matcha lattes. Matcha KitKats. Matcha cocktails. Matcha facial products. At this rate, someone is probably developing a matcha-flavoured matcha.

Japan, meanwhile, can barely keep up with demand. Exports continue to hit record highs as the world collectively decides that bright green powder is the answer to modern existence. Prices, unsurprisingly, are soaring.

And as I sat there licking my rapidly melting ice cream, I suddenly remembered another export success story I had recently come across - one that seems far less logical.

Switzerland is the second-biggest coffee exporter in the world.

Not producer. Exporter.

Second only to Brazil, and ahead of actual coffee-growing giants like Colombia, Ethiopia, and Vietnam.

Take a moment to process that.

The climate is not exactly tropical (at least last time I checked). The average Swiss mountain offers many things – scenic hiking, alarming cable cars, frequently encountered cows – but not coffee plantations.

The explanation lies in refinement.

Coffee beans arrive in Switzerland worth around five dollars per kilogram.

After being roasted, processed, portioned, encapsulated, branded, and given sleek minimalist packaging featuring mountains and tasteful fonts, they leave the country worth nearly thirty dollars per kilo.

Economically speaking, this is called 'added value'.

Even more remarkably, coffee exports are now worth roughly twice as much as Swiss exports of chocolate and cheese combined.

The secret lies in a wonderfully Swiss concept called 'substantial transformation'.

Under international trade rules, a product can acquire the nationality of the country where it was significantly transformed.

So if green coffee beans arrive from Brazil and are roasted in Switzerland, the final product officially becomes Swiss coffee.

If the same logic applied to humans, I would have become Japanese years ago.

But Switzerland didn't stop at the beans.

Entire ecosystems have developed around Lake Geneva and in eastern Switzerland – sometimes referred to as 'Coffee Valley'. Not only the giants such as Nestlé (with Nescafé and Nespresso) are located there, but also the technology leaders in the industry.

While Switzerland is in second place in coffee, it dominates the global market for fully automatic coffee machines undisputedly: around 70% of all machines sold worldwide come from Switzerland.

The country has essentially built an empire around a crop it cannot grow.

That is either deeply impressive or profoundly Swiss.

Possibly both.

Japan, interestingly, understands this logic perfectly.

Because Japan has also mastered the art of taking something foreign and refining it to almost unreasonable levels of perfection.

Whisky, for example. Originally Scottish. Now Japanese whisky regularly wins international awards and causes quiet distress in parts of Scotland.

Two countries. Same instinct. Different personalities.

Japan says: 'Let us perfect the experience'.

Switzerland says: 'Let us optimise the margins'.

Of course, there’s a darker side to all this.

The global coffee trade emerged from colonialism, exploitation, and deeply unequal labour systems. Swiss traders and families were historically involved in plantation economies and the networks surrounding them.

Even today, the industry struggles with sustainability, low farmer incomes, and environmental concerns.

Which means that behind every stylish espresso capsule lies a less stylish global reality.

A sobering thought.

Though probably not as sobering as Swiss coffee prices.

Still, I find it oddly admirable that a country with no coffee plants became a coffee superpower simply by being extremely Swiss about the whole thing.

And as I finished my matcha ice cream in Japan, I realised something.

Some countries export raw materials.

Others export refinement.

And Switzerland and Japan, in their own peculiar ways, have become world champions at exactly that.