João Hamilton
Several people have asked us recently about coffee prices so here's a short blog detailing our experiences this year.
It seems that 2021 was a year when everything became more expensive as coronavirus lockdowns restricted the supply of goods and consumers stuck on their sofas drove a simultaneous surge in demand. Timber went up, metal went up and if you wanted to buy a surfboard or bicycle you had to be quick!
Coffee has not been spared from this squeeze and events in Brazil and Colombia have made things considerably worse. Drought was already causing concerns among Brazilian coffee farmers when an unusually sharp frost arrived in the early hours of 20th July. Shortly afterwards pictures of damaged coffee trees were hurriedly emailed across the globe, sending coffee traders into overdrive. Prices for Arabica futures rose more than 40 percent, breaking the $2/lb mark, as it became clear that the volume of this year's harvest would be lower.
In Colombia, the largest producer of Arabica beans after Brazil, prices have risen for a different reason - civil unrest. A government attempt to raise taxes in the middle of a coronavirus lockdown was met by widespread opposition. Barricades were erected and police and protestors fought on and off for months. Having traveled on Colombia's limited road network for several years it's easy to see how a few overturned trucks can completely halt the supply of goods to the main ports, causing major delays and a rise in prices. And this is exactly what's happened, meaning we will receive our Colombian coffee from our friend Frank Torres roughly two months later than usual.
Small-scale specialty roasters like us typically pay considerably more for their raw coffee than the price of lower-grade 'commodity' coffee. We seek out the best-tasting beans and we aim to reward the farmers' work. Because of this, we initially thought that we might be insulated from the dramatic price increases of commodity coffee this year, but this has turned out not to be the case. Farmers in Brazil tell us that large roasters, desperate to secure a sufficient supply of coffee, are moving further up the quality ladder, driving up prices in the 'specialty' sector as well.
This left us with a choice - pay the same amount as we did in 2020 for less good coffee, or pay more to maintain the same high standards as previous years. We have opted for the latter, not only to bring you something delicious but also to maintain our relationships with the several growers that we keep returning to year after year. On that note, this year's harvest from Serra do Cigano in Brazil has just arrived with us in Sligo and is tasting great! We hope you enjoy it and thanks for your continuous support!
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/16/business/coffee-prices.htmlhttps://perfectdailygrind.com/2021/07/why-is-frost-in-brazil-causing-global-coffee-prices-to-increase/
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/why-the-cost-of-your-coffee-is-about-to-go-up-1.4646245
