Coffee Addicts, We Have Some Bad News for You
Caffeine lovers, it seems as though you may want to start looking for a new way to get your fix. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, the coffee industry is heading into some hard times in the near future, and it could affect the price of your morning latté. Why is this terrible problem happening? There are two primary reasons: More people are drinking coffee than ever before and climate change is causing a serious issue with coffee farms’ production capabilities.
Bloomberg reports that starting yesterday, the world fell into a coffee production deficit of 3.5 million bags for the 2015-16 season. Additionally, expanding markets like China’s middle class are expected to make global demand rise by an extra 40 to 50 million bags of coffee in the next decade. As it turns out, that’s more coffee than the entire crop of Brazil (the leading coffee exporter).
As far as the climate change goes, Arabica — the popular most bean (and what is primarily used by Starbucks) — is struggling to grow in the rising temperatures. To combat this problem, farms are having to move to higher and higher altitudes and are even being moved to production in places like the Asia-Pacific region or eastern parts of Africa rather than Central America.
These changes are definite problems for the future, but they’re not nessesarily going to result in a PSL costing you $10 by tomorrow. However, it should still be something that’s on your radar. Our solution? Empty out those unneeded boxes in your garage and fill them with coffee OR explore the seemingly endless world of tea.
What’s your favorite kind of coffee? Share with us in the comments below.
(Photos via Getty)
