Poor harvests in Brazil may start hitting your wallet where it hurts most: Your daily cup of joe.
What happened: A one-two punch of droughts and unseasonable frost have depleted the expected yields of Brazillian arabica beans, which make up 69% of the country’s coffee crop.
- When Frank Sinatra sang “they’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil” he was right on the money. The country is far and away the biggest coffee exporter in the world.
- An early official forecast projects Brazil will yield just 35.7 million bags of arabica for the 12 months starting last July—a ~27% drop from what analysts once predicted.
Vietnam, the world’s second-largest coffee producer (of cheaper robusta beans) is also seeing shortages, right as global consumption outpaces production for the second year.
Why it matters: Coffee prices have already perked up by 13.8% for Canadians as of June this year, and 71% of Canadians aged 18-79 enjoy a daily pot of bean juice, according to the Canadian Coffee Association (with java-heads guzzling an average of 2.7 cups per day).
Bottom line: From at-home instant to cafe lattes (already way overpriced) prepare to shell out more than ever to get your daily caffeine fix.