How Green Coffee Bean Prices Impact Your Morning Cup of Joe

Spring greetings from Brown and Jenkins! The view out my window is vintage Vermont, but the topic on my mind is Peru and organic coffee. This is partially because I just poured myself a cup of Organic Putney Blend, and partially because I'm looking at an article that says that folks like me who drink, and love, specialty and gourmet coffees have transformed the industry with a demand for items like Fair Trade, organic and single origin coffees. In fact, the North American Organic Coffee Survey for last year shows that American and Canadian coffee drinkers imported 89 million pounds of organic coffee!

So what about the price of those green coffee beans—organic or otherwise? Well, in June of 2009 those prices went way up due to some rough weather conditions in both Columbia and some Asian countries. Climate changes are effecting the once predictable harvesting in many countries, and coffee buyers predict that both Africa and Latin America will struggle with rainfall and temperatures that will impact growth. The only upside for gourmet coffee drinkers is that these changes will have a larger effect on coffee beans grown at lower altitudes. These tend to be poorer quality Robusta beans as opposed to the Arabica beans required for gourmet coffee.

So far, the cost of your cup of coffee has not seen a major hike. Frankly, retailers know folks here are still struggling with the economy and are hesitant to raise prices. However, industry leaders warn that the time will come when prices will go up.

No worries—you can still drop by Brown and Jenkins for your dollar cup of Vermont specialty coffee, or have freshly roasted beans delivered to your door. I just find it fascinating that we are so tied in to countries half way across the globe and their weather conditions. That's just one more way that I see coffee connections both here in my community and around the world.

Until our next cup,
Sandy Riggen