A cup of coffee could cost $7 bucks a cup by the end of the year, David Parnham, president of the Café Owners and Baristas Association of Australia, has warned the nation.
Parnham, speaking to the ABC, said global shortages from catastrophes in places like Brazil (which has experienced frosts) and “certain growing conditions in some of the coffee growing areas” could jack up prices.
“The cost of shipping has become just ridiculous,” he told the ABC. “It’s nearly five times the container prices of two years ago due to global shortages of containers and ships to be able to take things around the world.”
He also said the prices are currently artificially low (right now the standard price for a coffee is about $4), and have been for some time.
“The reality is it should be $6-7. It’s just that cafés are holding back on passing that pricing on per cup to the consumer.”
David Parnham
“It is overdue and unfortunately it can’t be sustained, and at some point, the consumer has to bear that,” Parnham told the ABC.
The news prompted some Australians to proclaim it’s a “good time to quit.”
https://t.co/eqG6TfhdMT
— Mark Alfred Clarkson (@MarkAClarkson) March 14, 2022
“By the end of the year, coffee lovers will be paying up to $7 for a regular cup as cafes nationwide struggle to absorb growing overhead costs warned David Parnham, president of the Café Owners and Baristas Association of Australia”.
Good time to quit!
Parnham isn’t the only one predicting a price hike. Steve Fulton, a coffee importer who runs Soho Coffee Roasters, recently told 7NEWS.com.au: “If we said $4-$4.50 for a small coffee was the average, I would expect you’d see that at $5-$5.50 imminently.”
Mr Fulton said that besides droughts in coffee-producing regions, the price increase could be attributed to high fuel prices caused by the conflict in Ukraine, which are yet to truly sink their teeth into Australian consumers.
Enjoy that $4 coffee while it lasts.
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