A report in The Australian earlier this week has braced consumers for a coffee price rise, suggesting consumers could be paying as much as $5 for a cup of their beloved brew.
A two-and-a-half year high saw prices rise to US $2.20 a pound, on the back of dry weather in Brazil (the world’s largest producer of coffee).
Industry experts suggest the rise could hit supermarket shelves and consumers, with other factors also attributing to the increase.
Peter Nikolakopoulos, from the Kaffeina group, told the newspaper that factors attributing to overheads and costs associated with take-away may be passed down to consumers.
“That’s a reflection of labour, other overhead costs, not the price of the coffee component in a cup. I’ll use the example of Illy, which is an expensive, premium coffee which sells for $50 a kilo. You get 140 cups out of a kilo, so you’re talking a 35c coffee component. It’s a long way from there to $5. The main costs are labour, rents, electricity,” he said.
Source: The Australian.