Coffee drinkers are facing record-breaking prices in part due to Donald Trump’s anger over the conviction of his friend, Brazilian ex-President Jair Bolsonaro. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the consumer price for a pound of beans has soared from $7.02 in January to a new high of $8.87, marking the steepest rise this century. A perfect storm is to blame, with poor harvests in key producing countries, and Trump’s imposition of 50 percent tariffs on the world’s largest exporter, Brazil, in the wake of the conviction of his ally. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2023, U.S. coffee imports stood at $7.85 billion. Almost all beans consumed came from abroad, particularly Brazil, which tended to supply around a third of the market. Per The Financial Times, imports of beans from the South American nation are down 50 percent in the year to date, and plummeted 75 percent in August. Meanwhile, major producers like Switzerland and Canada have also been affected by the president’s tariff project, while others, such as Vietnam and Colombia, haven’t been able to fill the gap. Despite reports that consumers have largely been protected from price hikes thus far, the situation is starting to pinch. The New York Times reports Corvo Coffee in New York City was forced to apologize with a note to customers. It said “the rising cost and tariffs” had forced it to raise its drip coffee to $3.75 from $2.50, despite claiming to have held off “for as long as possible.”
Read it at The Financial Times
