Looking for Answers to Rising Coffee Prices
10 February 2011
A cup of coffee at the M.E. Swing Coffee Company shop in Washington DC
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Food prices are at their highest level since the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization began keeping records in nineteen ninety. The causes include bad weather and growing demand. Some experts also blame the use of food crops to make fuel.
But higher food prices are not always the result of limited supplies.
Coffee prices have jumped almost fifty percent in six months. Prices have reached a thirteen-year high. Yet growers expect their current crop to be almost ten percent bigger than the last one.
JM Smucker is an American company known for its jellies and fruit spreads. But Smucker also owns Folgers, America’s top-selling packaged coffee. And it owns Dunkin’ Donuts, which sells coffee to wash down the doughnuts at its stores.
On Tuesday, Smucker said it would raise the prices of its coffee products by an average of ten percent. It said the increase is driven by the higher prices for coffee beans.
Experts say coffee prices are rising mainly because people are willing to pay more. Coffee sellers like Mark Warmuth say tastes are changing and more people want a good cup of coffee.
MARK WARMUTH: "There’s no right or wrong answer with regard to ‘What’s a good cup of coffee?’ A lot of it has to do with personal preference or taste."
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