Drought conditions in Brazil and Vietnam could drive up the price of coffee, according to Bloomberg.
Vietnam was the first to see a decline in production in robusta beans because of dry conditions. That forced consumers to rely on arabica beans. But Brazil, the largest producer of arabica, is also dealing with a drought.
With the lack of supply, demand could go up.
According to Bloomberg, arabica coffee, the bean preferred by Starbucks, is the costliest it’s been since February 2015.
Liz Bunker, who manages Down to Earth Tea and Coffee House on Main Street in Glastonbury, is aware of the drought. Down to Earth is a fair-trade organic coffee shop that purchases beans from 17 different countries including Brazil.
“Every seven years this happens and it’s historical in the coffee business and the fact that we are diversified in where we get our beans is what makes the difference,” Bunker said.
Bunker said the drought won’t affect them because of the way organic coffee beans are grown versus traditional beans.
“Our beans are shade grown up in the mountains and that’s a whole different water table than what’s low-land,” Bunker said.
Customers said that if the drought does lead to higher prices at other non-organic coffee shops like Starbucks, they know they’ll either have to shell out more money or find something else to jumpstart their day.
“Maybe they’ll find some other alternative like tea or maybe some less calorie soda or something,” Cathleen Hammel, of Willington, said.
