THE PRESSURES FACING THE SUPPLY OF COFFEE IN 2022

It’s in the news, it’s coming up in conversations around the BBQ on the weekend, it’s all around us and unfortunately the pressures on the global supply chain have finally caught up with our industry

Unfortunately like most industries in Australia that rely on imported goods, we have been incurring significant increases in the cost of our raw materials over the past 12 months due in part to the many logistical challenges that have emerged during the COVID-19 global pandemic. To compound the problem further we have seen the commodity coffee price reaching sustained record highs on the stock market throughout 2021, this has coupled with a falling Australian dollar (see below)

Price of commodity coffee chart for the 12 months to the 4th of February 2022

Australian dollar to U.S dollar exchange rate chart for the 12 months to the 4th of February 2022

We’ve seen our green coffee prices surge by 20 - 60% depending on the country of origin. The specialty grade coffee you enjoy is valued much higher than the 'commodity coffee' that is traded on the commodity market (NASDAQ) though the price generally reflects movements in this market as well as the AUD:USD exchange rate.  The price increases we are seeing on the stock exchange are also the culmination of a number of factors like below average crop yield projections due to abnormal weather events at origin, shipping bottlenecks at ports across the globe combined with an increase in demand (source: Drewry index), labour shortages due to COVID during harvest, processing and transportation, civil unrest in some countries and finally market speculation by Wall Street traders

It’s a bugger of a spot for the industry as a whole to find ourselves in, though we stand by our partnerships spanning the whole supply chain right back to the farmers. It’s a tough gig being a farmer and many farmers live a tough life making do with much less than we can even conceive as being a liveable standard. The decision to maintain our standards of quality naturally will cost us all a little more, though the positive flow on effect will make its way back to the farm gate and help ensure that the viability of being a coffee farmer not only continues, but prospers, leading to better living standards and education at origin which one can only presume will lead to better outcomes for all of us on a global level – not to mention the obvious continued supply of delicious coffee

We understand that a price rise is the last thing you want to hear about, though to mitigate the effect can we suggest you check out our online subscriptions. They've slowly been gaining in popularity since we launched them a few months back. You get your coffee delivered to your door at whatever frequency suits you best plus save 5% in doing so.. Set, Forget & Enjoy - How Good!

In closing we'd like to thank you for reading this far, we appreciate the continued support. We trust you understand and we hope we can continue to serve you well into the future

 

Yours in Good Coffee, and CRAZY TIMES!

 

Team GC