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Profiteering

The price of coffee on the wholesale market peaked in February 2022, after frost damaged the 2021-22 harvest in Brasil. So why are we seeing headlines about soaring instant coffee prices over a year later? And why so much more expensive?

Partly because coffee is often traded on long term contracts which run out months after the spot price changes. This is not a bad thing as it gives more security to often impoverished producers. In fact the it is a crucial part of the Fairtrade system which guarantees prices and long term contract to producers. We sell Fairtrade coffee and as we like to do the best for the planet so we focus on dual certified organic Fairtrade origins.

To get back to the coffee market, most contracts are well under 18 months so there must be other factors at work. Instant coffee has always been a poor deal as food processors naturally charge extra for an extra process. In addition they are predictably, like everyone else, blaming fuel prices. It's true that the process requires energy and involves extra transport but it's hard to explain the scale of the rises without reference to that fine old capitalist tradition: profiteering.

Here's a simple tip many of our customers are aware of: to save on your coffee budget, get your real coffee on a slightly darker roast. If you drink it white put a little more milk in

One indirect effect of the shortages after the 2021 frost in Brasil is random hiccups in the supply of some of our most popular origins of coffee beans.

Fortunately, this is something we rarely hear but we suspect that independent shops following the current trend for super light roast hear it more often. As well as gourmet suppliers with light acidic coffees, there are other reasons a cup of coffee can be a disappointment. Chains offer high roast coffee made weakly, or low-grade Robusta, to boost profits probably attract this sentiment – if anyone bothered to complain.

Frost is the enemy of coffee plants. With the Brazil frost season now over uneventfully, coffee roasters (and drinkers) are breathing a sigh of relief, hoping for a drop in the sky-high wholesale prices we have suffered since the frost in Brazil last summer. So far that has not happened and in the next few weeks Coffee may even be raising prices to match the current levels.

A new study involving real-world experiments at 30 coffee farms has found that coffee fruit health and production is dramatically improved with the increased presence of both birds and bees.

The Organic Soil Association have experienced strong growth across most of their certification schemes across Forestry and Organic.

Coffee wholesale prices have rocketed in the last few months and this will affect prices in the shops before much longer. Why have prices more than doubled? There are two reasons: the superficial and the fundamental. As usual the media are focusing on the superficial cause which was a minor frost in Brasil last summer (winter in Brasil!).