The cost of imported coffee beans has soared nearly 44 percent this year due to extreme weather in Brazil and pandemic-related shipping bottlenecks and political protests in Colombia, reports The New York Times.
Coffee giants like Starbucks or Nestle won’t have to deal with the problem for a year or more, since they buy their supply in advance, but smaller roasters have already had to increase prices.
“These increases are making me nervous because one of the main tenets that we operate on is being able to make specialty coffee and make the pricing affordable,” said Quincy Henry, a co-owner of Campfire Coffee in Tacoma, Washington, which opened in March 2020 as the pandemic began. “It’s got me thinking about how we’re going to survive.” Full Story
Related: Pandemic Disrupts Specialty Coffee; Chobani Disrupts RTD Coffee Line.