Ignazio Messina & C. SpA has been awarded the prestigious international ECF Best shipping line of the coffee year 2021/2022. The prize was awarded by the European Coffee Federation, which is the “sole voice”, representative at association level, of the European coffee trade and industry.

Assigned for three years in a row to a German shipping company, the award goes for the first time to a Mediterranean-Italian shipping group, whose quantitative but especially qualitative commitment on international coffee routes as well as in the management of the logistics of this commodity is affirmed.

The award was deliberated by the ECF Logistics Committee, whose General Secretary Eileen Gordon, accompanied by the Logistics Committee Chairman Kay Lohse and Vice Chairman Matteo Bianchi (Lavazza Group) met today in Genoa with the Messina company’s top management, first at the head office and then on board the Jolly Titanio moored at the IMT Terminal – Messina in Genoa. The award ceremony was attended by the Chairman Andrea Gais, the Executive Vice President Stefano Messina, the CEO Ignazio Messina and the East-South Africa Line Manager Luca Cantoro, who have handed to ECF representatives the customised crest made in the occasion of the centenary anniversary of Ignazio Messina & C.

Coffee – according to the ECF website – is produced in some sixty countries around the world, particularly in the area known as the Coffee belt, located between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. Each year, EU countries import more than three million tonnes of green coffee, the majority originating in Brazil, followed by Vietnam, Honduras, Colombia, Uganda, India, Peru and Ethiopia.

The top five importing countries in the EU are Germany (1.1 million tonnes) followed by Italy (603,000 tonnes) and Belgium (301,000 tonnes).