22 Feb 2014

Coffee lovers to face price rise

7:00 pm on 22 February 2014

Coffee drinkers are being warned they will have to pay more by mid-year.

There has been a 25 percent rise in the price of coffee on New York markets in the past month alone.

This is expected to push up the price of a cup of coffee by up to 50 cents a time.

Australian importer Chris Togias says the cause of the problem is a serious drought in Brazil.

This has cut production, lowered the quality of some beans, and encouraged some producers to hold back product in the hope prices will rise still higher.

Mr Togias says Brazil is by far the largest producer of coffee beans in the world and its product is a special one, making it hard for coffee producers in Africa or Asia to take up the slack.

Fund buying over the past week has seen the equivalent of the total world's annual coffee production traded in a five-day period creating panic buying.

The weather in Brazil has caused estimated losses from 3 to 30 percent of coffee bean crops.