Your Daily Coffee Habit Is About to Get More Expensive

Climate shocks in Brazil and shipping bottlenecks have pushed the price of coffee beans sharply higher. Starbucks says it won’t be affected for more than a year, but small cafes can’t hold off that long.

Coffee roasters have a problem. The cost of the beans that they import has soared this year, leaving roasters anguishing over whether their customers, from grocery stores to cafes to people looking for their daily latte, will tolerate higher prices. Extreme weather has damaged crops in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee exporter. On top of pandemic-related shipping bottlenecks and political protests that stalled exports from Colombia, that has pushed the cost of beans up nearly 44 percent in 2021. It’s not yet a problem for Starbucks or Nestlé, coffee giants that buy their supplies far in advance and won’t have to deal with the price gains for a year or more. But some smaller roasters have already had to raise prices, and others expect to — all the while worried about alienating consumers.