Rochester, NY – With his purple and pink hair that was swinging, Reneé Colón stops on a road staircase in the rented corner of a warehouse, pouring Brazilian coffee beans into his old toast machine.
Bean are precious because they survived severe drought In a year, when environmental conditions depress coffee production worldwide, doubling the price of raw beans in just months.
“Unfortunately, coffee will become more scarce,” said Columbus, founder and fire toaster Coffee Roasters. “Seeing that dramatic loss of the Brazilian harvest is a perfect example.”
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Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Rochester and Associated Press Institute of Technology.
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Heat and drought losses have reduction production forecasts Brazil and Vietnam, The largest coffee makers. Global production is still expected to increase, but not as much as investors in the basic products market expected. That has sent coffee prices, largely due to continuous high demand in Europe, the United States and China.
The prices reached their maximum point in February, but they have remained high, which forced toasters as Columbus to weigh how much cost of absorbing and how much to transmit to consumers.
Beans Colón’s roasted cost $ 5.50 per pound in early March, more than double what they cost in September. And that was for mixed average range beans. Specialized coffees, cultivated in delicate climates to slow down and add flavor, can cost even more.
The current 10% rates of President Donald Trump cover most of the coffee producing countries, including BrazilEthiopia and Colombia, and are expected to lead Costs for Americans. In the midst of its chaotic tariff pronouncements: at one time it threatened 46% of tariffs on tariffs Vietnam and 32% imports in Indonesian imports Before stopping them, American coffee toasters are rethinking their supply chains.
“With all these changes in coffee, perhaps we should open our own farm,” reflects Columbus.
Rural New York is not an option, of course. The best coffee in the world thrives near Ecuador, where the seasons are long and at high altitudes, where slow growth allows beans to obtain flavor. But Puerto Rico, where Columbus and her husband have roots, is not a serious option: work costs are too high and cares about the growing risk of crops. Hurricanes.
He shrugs to buy Hawaii and California coffee, which, according to her, is of poor quality, too expensive or both.
In February, global Coffee Green exports decreased by 14.2% compared to the previous year, according to the market report of the International Coffee Organization. The shortage led to the highest price for raw coffee in February, breaking the record established in 1977 when severe frosts annihilated 70% of coffee plants in Brazil.
The weather is not the only thing that increases prices, said Daria Whalan, a buyer of Ritual Coffee toasters based in San Francisco. Inflation is increasing the cost of labor, fertilizers and loans, he said.
She described being in Mexico in April seeking to finish the contracts between Trump’s attacks and the beginnings in rates. He reminded him of being in Colombia a month earlier, since Trump threatened and then retired from tariffs that would have affected coffee prices.
“It was like a Russian mountain day, because at the end of the day it did not exist,” Whalen said.
Part of the recent increase in coffee prices can be importers that buy more in anticipation of tariffs. Columbus believes that prices will be even higher as import taxes begin to pay. And with Consumer confidence reaches a minimum of 12 yearsColumbus could see a decrease in the demand for its premium coffee.
“It is difficult for our purpose because the price increases, hard for the end of the consumer because they have to pay more and hard at the end of the farmers because they can be experiencing really significant losses,” said Columbus.
However, it is committed to expanding.
In December, she and her husband took a loan of $ 50,000 to buy a personalized coffee toaster in Turkey that will triple. They are trying to increase sales by adding new wholesale customers as coffee shops and selling directly to the houses through a subscription service in the Beans style of the month.
The Columbus have raised the wholesale price in a pound of roasted beans for 25 cents. They are considering doing the same for spills and espresso drinks in their two retail locations.
In one of those, called Melo, a couple said they don’t look at the price of coffee on the receipt. For them, it’s a pleasure.
“We know that we could go looking for cheaper coffee elsewhere,” said Rob Newell, a high school biology teacher, while holding a Foulo Children’s daughter with his wife, who is also a teacher. “Maybe it’s just because we are new parents, but you get, like the cabin fever that stays at home all day.”
Columbus also seeks to reduce costs.
The warehouse where ASA has some extra space, so it is wearing stacking more raw bean bags to save up to $ 500 in monthly storage costs in port cities.
She has tried to cultivate relationships with farmers to minimize price peaks and control bean quality. He described working with a farmer in Colombia, since coffee prices increased in February to ensure a one -year contract that avoided the worst of the increase.
And as many small business owners have had to get used to the complexity of tariffs.
In January, he rejected an launch of an importer of Montreal coffee who suggested the fortress of the US dollar in Canada would allow him to save money importing through his warehouse. He feared that tariffs in Canada could increase prices. In addition, coffee would have to cross an additional edge, risking delays. And the value of the dollar has been up and down.
“I want things to be less complicated instead of more,” he said.
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