THE PRICE OF coffee greens – the unroasted beans – has tripled in the last two years, meaning the price of a cup of Joe is set to rise again.

This, sellers say, is due to a multitude of factors, but the bottom line is there just isn’t enough coffee in the world to keep up with demand.

Tomasz Luczak, the head roaster at the Old Barracks in Limerick, told The Journal that the shortage is partly due to extreme weather in major grower countries like Brazil and Vietnam – “the crops are smaller and the beans are smaller”.

Two years ago, he says, he paid €210 for a bag of coffee from Brazil. It’s now over €600. He says even the price of commercial coffee is now on par with the specialty types, which wasn’t always the case.

The largest producer of the cheaper robusta bean in Vietnam’s key coffee belt suffered from dryness during the growing period and heavy rains arrived at the start of harvest, impacting crops.

Aside from climate change, the minimum wage increase in Ireland and transport costs internationally have contributed to the higher cost.

Luczak says the shop he works in has had to raise prices every year to keep up, and this year will be no different.

“We are bigger company, we probably take a little bit of that heat on us. So we just suffer.”

Generally shops with their own roasters buy green coffee in bulk after the harvest and it lasts them about a year. 

Luczak says customers will likely see the next increase in prices within six months.

He says establishments currently selling a cup of coffee for €3.50 are “crazy”, as the margin is too small.

“That won’t be possible probably by the summertime. I’d say minimum €4 per cup, that will be standard.”

Despite the impact on coffee shops, Luczak understands the high cost, as it can mean the farmers, who go to pick the coffee cherries for months at a time, get higher wages and better benefits, such as healthcare and childcare while they’re away.

“It seems to not be good for us, but it’s good for the other people,” he said.

“Very often the farmers are not getting enough money for production.

“We don’t realise to produce a cup of coffee how much work it is.”

In December, the price for arabica beans – the world’s most popular bean variety – reached a 47-year high, having risen by more than 18% last year to top 3.44 US dollars (€3.28) per pound.

Robusta coffee is also seeing record price hikes, reaching 5,694 dollars (€5,428) per metric ton as of November 2024.

Record coffee prices are in contrast to broader wholesale food costs, which are well below an all-time high set in early 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.