Coffee prices expected to climb as production dips

Coffee is something many people take pretty seriously.

“They might pick up something else, but they are coming in here for the coffee,” says Halifax café owner Kaylon Fraser.

Customers may be shelling out a bit more for a cup of their favourite pick-me-up as global coffee prices have hit a 47-year high.

”We are expecting cup prices to increase by a nickel, a dime, maybe $0.25 here and there. Those are the adjustments we're expecting in the new year,” says Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Lab Director Sylvain Charlebois.

According to Charlebois, the reason for the price jump is a lower crop yield in Brazil, which is the No. 1 producer of coffee in the world, including the popular Arabica bean.

“You need the perfect climate and you need to go up the mountain to actually get the right climate to grow Arabica beans,” Charlebois says.

Fraser is closely watching the world bean prices.

“Coffee prices are increasing. Recently our prices have gone up slightly for buying in bulk. We're trying not to pass that along right now to the customer,” Fraser says. “We've been serving the same coffee for a really long time so we don't want to detour. We want to make sure that we're still giving people what they like and what they come here for.”

“Roasters in Canada or in the Atlantic are very particular when it comes to choosing the right bean and so I'm not sure exactly if there's going to be more demand for Robusta beans so I do expect prices to go up just because people are addicted to a certain taste,” says Charlebois.

Charlebois expects the cost of coffee to go up in grocery stores, too, maybe even more than in cafés.