Poorer harvests, partly due to climate change, lower supply and higher demand, primarily from China where the population has started to acquire a taste for the black beverage, have pushed up the price of coffee over the past year.
According to new figures from Statistics Sweden (SCB), this has resulted in coffee being 42 per cent more expensive for Swedish consumers.
Some delay
Anders Thorén, Communications Manager at the coffee roastery Löfbergs, says that the coffee price is determined on a commodity exchange in New York where it peaked at the beginning of the year.
It was record-high but has dropped slightly since then and this suggests that coffee may cost less in stores a little further ahead, he says.
The changes on the commodity exchange in New York, however, do not immediately affect the coffee price for consumers.
Both when coffee prices rise and when they fall, there is a certain lead time before it affects the price in stores and consumers notice it. Normally, it takes three, four months for both price increases and price decreases, says Anders Thorén.
Low level
He notes, however, that even if we have seen a sharp increase in coffee prices over the past few years, it starts from a low level.
When you buy a packet of coffee in a store, the price per cup is somewhere between 1 krona and 1.50. It is still less than we pay for a glass of milk, juice or soda.
But when can coffee prices in Swedish stores start to fall again after the price rally over the past year?
As said, we have seen a period where raw coffee prices have dropped and this suggests that coffee will cost less, perhaps from the Midsummer week, says Anders Thorén.
