The retail prices of coffee have shot up to multi-year highs following the devastating frost that hit Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer.
The Covid-19 which caused shipping logjams has also contributed to cost escalation by pushing the freight costs to record levels.
Arabica coffee – one of the South American nation’s top commodity exports – on the ICE Futures US exchange has doubled in price over the last 12 months with crops in Brazil already wilting after the worst dry spell in 91 years, Reuters reported.
The agency quoted the data by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics which showed that average ground coffee prices rose to a peak of $4.75 per lb in April, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier and the highest level since July 2015,
Brazil accounts for an estimated 30 percent of global exports
Earlier AFP reported that the current rise in coffee prices is also part of a wider context of inflation in the cost of raw materials, whether agricultural or industrial — with copper and tin both breaking records in recent weeks.
