The price of your morning buzz is about to get even higher.
Hit with wildly increasing costs for beans from growers, coffee roasters are charging more to supermarkets and other retailers — and those folks are passing the higher prices on to consumers.
J.M. Smucker Co., which distributes the Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts coffee sold at stores, recently said it was raising prices for a pound by 11 percent — the company's fourth and biggest increase in a year. A few days later, Starbucks, which already had raised prices on some coffee drinks in the fall, said it would raise prices for bags of coffee beans sold at its cafes by 17 percent.
Prices for coffee have been rising steadily. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a 1-pound can of ground coffee sold for an average of $5.10 in the United States in April, up from $3.64 the year before.
Over the past 12 months, the price of green, unroasted coffee on the big commodities exchanges has gone up nearly 92 percent.
"These are big increases — and I don't think we're done with it," said food industry expert Phil Lempert, who edits the blog SupermarketGuru.com. "We're going to see higher prices on coffee for a very, very long time."
Spurring the run-up in bean prices is a combination of bad weather in coffee-growing regions, increased demand from developing countries such as China and intense speculation in the commodities markets, experts said.
Chuck Jones, co-owner of Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena, Calif., said his costs for high-grade beans have nearly doubled.
"At this time last year I was paying $1.85 for coffee that I'm now paying $3.60 for," Jones said. His company sells gourmet green beans to roasters around the world, including Starbucks.
The company also roasts beans it sells to retailers, restaurants and coffee shops. Prices for those beans are up 30 percent over last year, Jones said.
Los Angeles Times
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