Radio 4 Food Programme looks at coffee prices (feat. Mercanta!)
Sky-rocketing coffee prices haven’t gone unnoticed by the media. We have been pleased to see increasing coverage of this year’s record highs - most recently by the BBC Radio 4 Food Programme.
It’s a massive topic - and no one knows for sure what will happen to prices in the long term. What we do know is that the world commodity index recently broke the US$3.00/lb barrier - to put this in perspective, a year ago the index was at around US$1.40. Prices have since fallen back to around US$2.70, but the market is still extremely volatile - and prices high.
The Food Programme looks into what factors may lie behind these rises - market speculation to an extent, but also fundamental issues like growing domestic demand for coffee in Brazil and China, and erratic weather patterns. It asks what these price spikes mean for growers and consumers. Interestingly, the programme ponders whether coffee growers still need Fairtrade now that current prices are way above its minimum price.
Radio 4 came to our London office to interview Mercanta’s founder Stephen Hurst - who has been telling us that coffee is too cheap for several years now! You can listen to the programme on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b011297w/
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