What Vermont Coffee Prices and Foreign Fungus Have in Common

Good Morning Coffee Lovers,

As we Green Mountaineers welcome our April fool's day snow fall (no joke) the wide world around us continues to impact our local community. Our close knit Cambridge coffee community is slowly seeing the rise in coffee prices, and folks are asking me why.

Sadly, in March (that was yesterday!), the Wall Street Journal quoted the International Coffee Organization as saying that coffee drinkers have not yet seen the full rise in prices that are going to come about. So here are the main factors that might impact the cost of your coffee beans:

• Rising fuel cost- This is probably pretty obvious as we are all paying more for fuel of any kind.

• Columbian fungus- Here is the answer to the title teaser. Columbia lost 3.6 million pounds of coffee beans due to an infestation. Of course, this impacts the supply of available coffee.

• Increased demand- The other side of the coin is that the demand for coffee is growing in developing countries like China, India and Brazil. Now that the populations in these countries are a bit better off, they can afford luxuries like coffee. (I know- that first cup is truly a necessity isn't it!)

So, yes, we can all expect to see prices for Columbian coffee beans, Brazilian coffee beans and pretty much all coffee beans rise. Even large corporations like Kraft Foods are reporting being affected by the factors above.

Good News on Coffee

There is some good news on the coffee horizon. A study published by the American Heart Association finds that woman who drink a cup of coffee a day have a 25% less chance of having a stroke.

So let's just weather out these economic changes together, over a warm cup of coffee, and friendship. Come on in and join me for a cup.

Until our next cup,
Sandy Riggen