The Brazilians froze their coffee trees. Coffee will now also make the Czechs more expensive

In addition to the largest South American country, lower yields have affected other producers in South America, such as Colombia, Honduras and Mexico.

“Besides, as in our country, they lack temporary workers to harvest coffee,” Roberto Trevisan from the Coffee School told Deník. Coronavirus bans are also making life harder for foreign workers on other continents. “Therefore, coffee in cafes can be expected to become more expensive,” he confirms.

So far, while coffee suppliers and sellers usually use even earlier stocks purchased at lower prices, the price of this commodity is already rising rapidly on international exchanges. Traders also face difficulties in transporting goods between continents. Due to the pandemic, loading in ports is limited, and shipping containers are not available.

“Consumers in the Czech Republic will not avoid rising prices either. They can pay up to 25 percent more for coffee than last year before the outbreak of the pandemic, “estimates Lukáš Kovanda, Chief Economist of Trinity Bank.

Prices are also rising in Italy

Now e-shop customers buy coffee beans usually at 350 crowns per kilogram. “The average price of coffee has hardly changed over time, and if so, by units of percent, ie by a few crowns,” Michal Buzek, an analyst at Heureka.cz, a purchasing advisor, told Deník.

At the beginning of this year, there was a significant increase in interest in shopping on the Internet, with about a third more customers looking for it due to the lockdown. Sales of coffee machines also increased by 41 percent in the first quarter of this year. “As a result, people started to buy more coffee for home use,” said Buzek.

Economist Kovanda also expects a decline in interest in visiting cafes and consuming it more often at home, as was the case with beer. Also, “regulars” do not go to pubs as often as before. “This is due to higher prices in gastronomy, which is related to the lack of labor. This is another unfavorable news for cafes, “he told Deník Kovanda.

“The increase in price is really significant, so it will probably not be enough for cafes to include the higher price of coffee in their margins, but they will also have to reflect it in the price for consumers,” he said.

According to the native Italian Trevisan, who has been teaching the Czechs of coffee culture for many years, coffee drinkers in his native country are also starting to compare with the higher price. He already has a long-standing habit that coffee in the Italy café costs one euro. Now he has to pay at least a few tens of cents, but sometimes up to twice the previous price.

According to Trevisan, Czech coffee lovers could eventually “survive” the price increase, if they also got better quality for more money. “It will also not surprise anyone in the wine bar that one bottle costs 150 crowns and the other three hundred. There, people have already understood that the price depends on the quality, “said Trevisan. According to him, even an equally large cup of coffee in a café can cost 30, 50 and 80 crowns, but always depending on the quality. “My wish is for gastronomy to offer more expensive, but mainly better quality coffee,” he added.

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