Belgium Wins the World Coffee Roasting Championship: What Does It Mean for Specialty Coffee?
Forbes België reported on news that caught my eye: after six years, Belgium has won the world coffee roasting title again. Benjamin Brassart became world champion on 27 June 2026 at the World of Coffee trade fair in Brussels.
Less than two years earlier, Brassart co-founded Boo Coffee Roasters with Benoît Desmaretz, an independent roastery in the industrial district of Anderlecht. They work with carefully selected beans from producers who take their responsibilities seriously. I find it quite remarkable that such a young roastery reached the world top so quickly.
The article also includes two people from the sector. Thomas Wyngaard of OK Coffee Studio says the title will give specialty coffee more weight in Belgian horeca (hotels, restaurants and cafés), although he expects the economic impact to be limited. Maxime Lemploy of Cuprima, the specialty division of importer Efico, links specialty coffee to the slow food trend: local products, transparency and fair prices for producers.
The numbers put things into perspective. Specialty coffee accounts for roughly 2 percent of the global coffee market, but it is growing much faster than the rest. According to a study by the Specialty Coffee Association, 47 percent of American adults drink specialty coffee every day, compared with 42 percent who drink traditional coffee. There are no reliable consumption figures yet for Belgium, but coffee bars keep multiplying, especially in Brussels and Antwerp.
Wyngaard expects a split: cheap mass-market coffee on one side, top quality on the other, and a smaller middle segment. We are also seeing traditional importers increasingly take over specialty importers. I am curious to see how that will change the coffee in our cups in the coming years.
Source: Forbes België
Less than two years earlier, Brassart co-founded Boo Coffee Roasters with Benoît Desmaretz, an independent roastery in the industrial district of Anderlecht. They work with carefully selected beans from producers who take their responsibilities seriously. I find it quite remarkable that such a young roastery reached the world top so quickly.
The article also includes two people from the sector. Thomas Wyngaard of OK Coffee Studio says the title will give specialty coffee more weight in Belgian horeca (hotels, restaurants and cafés), although he expects the economic impact to be limited. Maxime Lemploy of Cuprima, the specialty division of importer Efico, links specialty coffee to the slow food trend: local products, transparency and fair prices for producers.
The numbers put things into perspective. Specialty coffee accounts for roughly 2 percent of the global coffee market, but it is growing much faster than the rest. According to a study by the Specialty Coffee Association, 47 percent of American adults drink specialty coffee every day, compared with 42 percent who drink traditional coffee. There are no reliable consumption figures yet for Belgium, but coffee bars keep multiplying, especially in Brussels and Antwerp.
Wyngaard expects a split: cheap mass-market coffee on one side, top quality on the other, and a smaller middle segment. We are also seeing traditional importers increasingly take over specialty importers. I am curious to see how that will change the coffee in our cups in the coming years.
Source: Forbes België
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