Single-cup coffee is playing an increasingly larger role in retail coffee sales. Single-cup sales growth comprised 74 percent of retail coffee sales growth of $761 million, according to Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Facts. 

Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Co. expanded its commitment to supporting the specialty coffee industry by announcing that it will distribute coffee trees to farmers most impacted by coffee rust, a plant fungus that damages millions of coffee trees around the world, the company says. Through September 2016, Starbucks will plant a coffee tree for every bag of coffee purchased in participating U.S. stores.

The premium market for coffee continues to gain ground, according to an August 2012 report from Santa Monica, Calif.-based IBISWorld. “Consumers educated themselves more about coffee beans and traded up in quality over the five years to 2012,” the report stated.