The price of coffee continues to rise. While coffee has risen in price by almost a fifth last week, it added another 10 percent earlier this week. The global supply of coffee on the market is in danger of declining due to the unusually cold weather in Brazil.
In Brazil, frosts hit last week, hitting a relatively large area of coffee plantations and damaging much of them. It is therefore very likely that this year’s coffee harvest in the country of its world’s largest producer will be miserable.
The first estimates speak of up to 200,000 hectares, which were damaged by frost. This represents about 11 percent of the total area on which coffee is grown in Brazil. The market could thus lose about 330 to 540 thousand tons of coffee. The original estimate was about two-thirds lower.
World markets reacted immediately to the events. Futures for the Arabica variety landed at $ 2,152 per pound on Monday, the highest level since October 2014. Their price has risen by more than 35 percent since the end of June. This, combined with insufficient transport capacity in maritime transport, will also mean an increase in the price of coffee for consumers virtually worldwide.
