When Coffee Meets Climate Change
It’s raining higher prices
Starbucks is going to be charging more for some of its coffee drinks. Folgers and Maxwell House have already raised prices. In Australia, the price of a cup of coffee is expected to go up by about 50 cents.
Around the world, the price for Arabica coffee beans has hit a 13-year high and is still climbing.
Part of it is that more people around the world are drinking coffee. But the underlying problem is that coffee crops are in trouble.
Donald Schoenholt, who runs a specialty coffee company in Brooklyn, NY, says that prices have gone up and down before, but that this time it’s different.
“In Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and several other coffee-producing nations, there have been smaller crops coming out,” Schoenholt told NPR.
The reason for smaller crops is that the weather is changing in the tropical regions that are most suited to growing the best coffee.
With an ever-growing population of humans, and increasingly unpredictable weather, experts are warning that food prices are set to rise everywhere – just as we’re already seeing with gas prices.
What do you say? Are you seeing coffee and other food prices rising where you live? And does this relate to changes in climate around the world? Let us know in a comment below or on Facebook.
What you can do: Expect prices to keep rising. Be a smart shopper. Cotton goods will be going up, too, so now is a good time to stock up.