Over the last year or so, I’ve dreaded getting to the end of a bottle of olive oil.
Prices have crept leapt up and up, thanks in part to poor growing conditions in Spain, where the world’s biggest olive oil producers are based.
Still, some much-needed relief comes in the form of better weather in the region this year. Experts claim the kitchen staple should “halve” in price as 2024 comes to an end.
But just when you thought you could relax, there’s more bad news ― this Tuesday, the cost of coffee hit a 47-year high in the UK at £2.70 per pound of Arabica beans. That’s a 109% increase from last year, The Grocer reports.
And if experts are to be believed, the prices won’t drop for a while.
Speaking to The Financial Times this July, Giuseppe Lavazza, who chairs the Italian coffee company Lavazza, said: “We have never seen such a spike in price as the trend right now.”
“The coffee supply chain is dramatically under pressure,” he added.
“Coffee prices are not going down … [they’re] going to stay very high.”
Why is coffee so dear right now?
“Climate change has affected the production in the most important robusta countries around the world, mainly Vietnam and Indonesia, reducing quite a lot the quantity available of these kinds of varieties,” the company chair shared.
Speculators have also added to the cost, he claimed.
Lavazza are not alone.
Nestlé, who own brands like Nescafé and Nespresso, shared last month: “Like every manufacturer, we have seen significant increases in the cost of coffee, making it much more expensive to manufacture our products.”
The last time prices were this high(1977), snowfall had ruined the output of many Brazilian coffee farms.
When will coffee costs go down?
Speaking to the BBC, Vinh Nguyen, the chief executive of Tuan Loc Commodities, said it may get worse before it gets better.
“Brands like JDE Peet (the owner of the Douwe Egberts brand), Nestlé and all that, have [historically] taken the hit from higher raw material prices to themselves,” he said.
“But right now they are almost at a tipping point. A lot of them are mulling a price increase in supermarkets [at the start] of 2025.”
Guisseppe Lavazza agrees, telling The Financial Times it’s “unlikely” costs will drop until at least the beginning of next year.
Sigh...