Jittery wholesalers brew up coffee surge

“It’s not just the caffeine that’s making the market jittery,” says Katherine Dunn. Coffee prices have hit aten-year high, with futures for the higher-quality Arabica bean trading at $2.50 a pound. Lower-quality Robusta beans (used in instant coffee) are also close to a ten-year high. Coffee has posted the biggest price rise of any commodity tracked by the Wall Street Journal in 2021: 84.6%. The main culprit appears to be global shipping shortages; unsure of how reliable the coffee supply is, wholesale buyers have panic-bought everything they could get their hands on. Things may cool down after Christmas, but the “wild card” is the weather in key exporter Brazil. It has recently suffered bad harvests owing to both drought and frost.