Very interesting article tucked away on the BBC News website earlier this week that brings together some interesting and sobering statistics on the recent past and possible future for coffee production and consumption.
The first thing that really struck me was overall consumption of coffee, bearing in mind just how long it’s been around, with the 4.9 billion kilogrammes consumed in 1980 doubling to 9.5 billion kilogrammes by last year. That sort of growth in demand, when one considers the potentially limited geographical band available for good coffee production means that there are real pressures on overall capacity.
Changes in climate; without getting into the actual cause, be it CO2 levels, population growth or just weather variables, the reality is that the traditional growing areas are under pressure as the environment in and around them alters significantly.
Consumption is likely to outstrip actual production for a third consecutive year in 2017 although stockpiles built up in previous years have mitigated really significant price increases or shortages. Clearly if these demand / production differences continue then we have some challenging times ahead.
Read the whole article here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-fa38cb91-bdc0-4229-8cae-1d5c3b447337
Written by: Colin from KSV.