Coffee Prices Continue To Skyrocket
The price for one of the last legal drugs in America is about to skyrocket. Starbucks, J.M. Smucker, and Green Mountain Coffee are all jacking up coffee bean prices. A 12-ounce bag of Starbucks will climb to almost $15.00 — a 17 percent increase.
J.M. Smucker, which sells Folgers, Dunkin Donuts and Millstone, has raised prices 4 times this year, is now increasing prices by 11 percent, and has hiked prices up a whopping 34 percent since last year.
Green Mountain is elevating prices by 10 percent. Maxwell House and Kraft have raised prices three times since August 2010, an increase of 43 percent.
Market Watch reports that over the past 12 months, coffee contract prices for Arabica beans are up 99 percent on the Intercontinental Exchange.
According to the the International Coffee Organization, coffee prices reached new highs in April. The April monthly average of the ICO composite indicator price compared to March rose by three percent. This monthly average is the highest recorded since June 1977, and represents an increase of 82.2% in relation to April 2010.
The Department of Labor claims the cost of a one-pound can of ground coffee has increased 40 percent from the year before.
But even as the cost for coffee climbs to record prices, Americans aren’t about to give up their morning Joe. According to the ICO, Americans consumed 21.7 million 60-kilogram bags of coffee in 2008, up from 21 million the year before.
And not just the price of Coffee is going up. A weaker US dollar has caused higher oil and commodity prices across the board, sending global food prices to their highest point in 20 years. Additionally, droughts and flooding has led to smaller crops from exporters.
According to the United Nations, the global price of food reached a new all-time high in February. And the World Bank reports the global price of food has risen 36% over the past 12 months.