The price of coffee has been skyrocketing on international commodities markets, and while consumers in Canada haven’t felt the grind yet, the pressure of climate change on the world’s coffee farms is setting the industry on edge, insiders and scientists said.
The current market price for Arabica beans, which make up around 70 per cent of the coffee market, is roughly $2.70 US per pound. This time last year, it was around $1.49 US.
Meanwhile, the market price of cheaper Robusta beans, favoured in Europe and by instant coffee makers, has more than doubled in the past 12 months.
The price jumps come amid serious droughts in Brazil and Vietnam, two of the world’s largest coffee producers. And with climate change driving up the frequency of these extreme weather events, industry insiders say the situation could result in a higher price for a cup of coffee in Canada down the line.
The impact of climate change is “becoming more and more obvious… particularly in the countries of origin,” Robert Carter, president of the Coffee Association of Canada told CBC News.
“We’ve got other impacts such as pests and disease in regions like Colombia and Vietnam. So, you throw all of that together, tied in with supply chain disruptions, that’s resulting in this price pressure we’re experiencing on coffee.”
Canadian roasters feeling the heat
Up to 5,500 pounds of coffee beans are roasted every day at Chronicle Coffee Roasters in Calgary depending on the time of year, said owner and founder Karl Ward. They roast for themselves and other brands, and work with independent cafes across Canada.
The market, he says, has always fluctuated.
“But one thing as roasters we’ve never seen before is a fluctuation like we have now.”
In Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, farmers have been grappling for months with one of the worst droughts the region has seen in decades. Huge swathes of the country have received abnormally low levels of rainfall since May, including the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, which contains many of the country’s Arabica farms.
One farmer in Caconde, a town in one of Sao Paulo state’s key growing regions, told the Associated Press earlier this month that he expected to harvest 120 sacks of coffee beans this season, but only managed to get 100 because of the drought.
The failure of crops in Vietnam this year due to drought has also put more stress on Brazil. Vietnam is the largest producer of the less abundant Robusta beans. Some traditional Robusta buyers shifted to purchasing Arabica, the…
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