https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coffee-price-increase-rcna183711
Coffee lovers and café dwellers are likely to see the price of a cup of joe increase soon, experts warn.
The price of arabica coffee beans, the high-quality beans found in most restaurants and shops, spiked this month, recently jumping to $3.50 a pound.
That’s up 70% this year, which has brought the highest prices for the crop since 1977.
Adjusted for inflation, $3.50 would be about $0.66 in 1977. Prices increased back then because a frost killed more than a billion coffee bean trees.
And today, experts say, climate change is to blame.
“We’ve seen significant drought in some of the key coffee-growing areas in the world, places like Brazil, which is the largest coffee exporter in the world,” said David Ortega, a professor of food economics and policy at Michigan State University.
