Bloomberg this week is reporting that coffee has climbed to its highest price since 1997, with Arabica futures up 64% this year. Ouch.
What's causing the rise in coffee prices? Dock No, the statistical coordinator of the ICO's Statistics Section attributes it to, well, quite a few things actually:
"The price of Arabica has been steadily rising since the start of the 2023/2024 coffee year (October 2023) in a similar manner to the market increase seen in 2020 as the world emerged from the first lockdown.
“The supply of Arabica around the world has been affected by a number of extreme weather events. The frosts experienced across Brazil in July 2021 have had a knock-on effect, while Colombia has experienced about 13 months of continuous rain and Ethiopia is going through five years of drought.
“The price of Robusta has also been affected by an increase in the change of land use in Vietnam. The feedback we’ve received is that it’s not just one crop that coffee is being replaced with. However, the demand for durian fruit from China has increased greatly over the past 10 years and we’ve seen a lot of farmers uprooting their coffee trees and replacing them with durian."
So, what does it mean for you?
Instant coffee probably goes up first (the Robusta beans used in instant coffee are primarily sourced from Vietnam).
In a short few months, I expect store-bought coffee will go up too. I wouldn't be surprised to see $7.50 flat whites, as cafes take the opportunity to claw back some revenue to repurpose towards rising wages.
And then finally whole roasted beans for home espresso etc. like those sold from Dancing Goat will be affected.
FWIW I'll hold out for as long as possible though. We're not trying to make a profit; we're just trying to pay for the copious amounts of fancy soy milk we get through at home! Unfortunately, though, we may need to pop our prices up to remain solvent.
Uh, that's it really. I just wanted to forewarn you that coffee prices are about to rise again, and we'll try and resist for as long as possible.
P.S. could my hero image be any more tacky? All thanks to our glorious robot overlords.
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