Global coffee consumption is expected to rise steadily next year despite the economic slowdown to match the 2.5 percent annual average growth seen in the past decade, a senior industry executive said on Thursday.     

"Consumption is going to be very well despite the economic turbulence," Roberto Olivier Silva, executive director of the

London-based International Coffee Organisation (ICO) told Reuters in an interview.     

The London-based ICO does not have any specific estimates, Silva said on the sidelines of an international coffee conference in Ho Chi Minh City.     

Doubts that Europe could forge a deal to end its prolonged debt crisis forced down the commodities complex, with the January robusta contract falling $57 to close at $1,953 a tonne on Wednesday.       

Last year, the world consumed 135 million bags, up 2.4 percent from 2009, ICO data show.      

"If there is any fall, we can compensate from emerging markets and producing countries," he said, without naming specific countries.     

Russia and China have seen rising consumption of coffee and are cited by industry officials and traders as promising markets.     

"In China the young generation does not follow the tradition of drinking tea but they drink coffee instead," Chairman Luong Van Tu of the Vietnam Coffee and Cocoa Association (Vicofa) told the conference earlier on Thursday.      

China ranks ninth among Vietnam's top 10 coffee buyers in the previous 2010/2011 crop year, according to Vicofa, citing Vietnam's customs data.     

Russia consumed 3.66 million bags of coffee in 2010, a rise of 16.9 percent from the previous year, the ICO said in its monthly report for October. – Reuters