Soaring cost of coffee beans set to be filtered through to customers

Soaring cost of coffee beans set to be filtered through to customers

Coffee shops relieved by returning demand from office workers face a new challenge as fears of a poor harvest in Brazil, the world's top producer, drives the price of beans to its highest level in a decade. Market rates for arabica beans, used by companies including Starbucks and Pret a Manger, reached as high as $2.39 per pound on Friday, the highest since the food crisis in 2012. Arabica prices have risen about 80pc this year, outstripping jumps across other "soft" commodities including cotton, sugar and palm oil. The rise is likely to filter through to the price of a cup of coffee, warned Charles Sargeant, a commodity broker at Britannia Global Markets. “The higher prices are not going away [and] that will translate into higher consumer prices,” he said. The latest harvest in Brazil, the top grower of arabica, was devastated by droughts, and a recent frost threaten to damage next year’s crop. Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, said there was “still plenty of uncertainty” over the upcoming harvest. “We've basically got to see a very good rainy season in Brazil to alleviate some concerns over the tightness,” he added. On top of those problems, coffee