Due to the high inflation, coffee drinkers are increasingly switching to cheaper types of coffee. As a result, there is more demand for the robusta variety, which is usually cheaper than arabica coffee. But farmers are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with that demand.
“Fewer and fewer people are opting for the more expensive type of coffee. The shift is even such that the higher export of robusta coffee is still far from enough,” raw materials consultant Judith Ganes told the news agency. Bloomberg. So much more cheaper robusta coffee has to be exported to meet the higher demand.
The demand for the type of coffee, which often ends up in cheaper instant coffee, is so great that prices are rising relatively fast. For example, the price for instant coffee in Germany rose by almost 20 percent, while prices for coffee in general are rising less and less.
Robusta comes from trees that grow more easily and are more resilient than the arabica variety. But arabica coffee is often more bitter in taste, which made it less popular for a long time.
This changed after the sharp increase in energy prices. As a result, coffee roasters started to process cheaper coffee in their blends in order to save costs. In addition, more consumers are switching to cheaper instant coffee now that supermarket prices have risen sharply.
Demand increases, but harvest decreases
Coffee countries exported 4 percent more robusta beans between October and March than in the same period a year earlier, the International Coffee Organization calculated. In the first six months of the coffee season, which begins about halfway through the calendar year, exports of robusta coffee beans were at their highest level in the past three years.
The supply of robusta coffee is likely to remain tight. In Vietnam, the largest producer of the species worldwide, many farmers have switched to more profitable crops to pay for their increased fertilizer costs. As a result, this year’s harvest is probably the smallest of the past four years.
The second largest producer, Brazil, is struggling with a drought that limits the yield of the coffee plantations. There are concerns in Indonesia about the consequences of extreme rainfall for the harvest.
2023-05-14 10:13:50
#Search #affordable #cup #coffee #leads #shortage #cheap #beans #Economy
