With its strong flavor and the dose of caffeine it offers, coffee is one of the most popular beverages.

With denizens of all seven continents enjoying the drink regularly, it is easy to forget that coffee comes from a plant that needs very particular conditions to grow.

With climate change affecting the global coffee supply, the decrease in supply is causing prices to increase. Let's find out more. 

The Coffee Belt Tightens

Coffee beans are actually the seeds of the coffee plant. These evergreens can only grow in the Coffee Belt, a limited region around the equator that covers parts of Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

Farmers in these areas harvest the seeds when the flavor is at its best, after which the seeds are roasted to make the coffee beans we know and love. 

Since coffee beans can only grow in the Coffee Belt, climate change has devastated the supply. Rising temperatures mean more frequent and severe droughts, which have already caused major damage to farms in California.

Erratic weather in Vietnam has had similar effects on the global supply of robusta, the second-most popular type of coffee. Recently, the price of Arabica–the most popular variety of coffee–reached record highs of $3.44 per pound, having increased by 80% in 2024. Farmers are struggling to combat the droughts and meet a growing demand for quality beans.

Price of the Past

This is not the first time coffee has faced a massive price increase. Over the years, the plant’s inability to be farmed outside the Coffee Belt has left the supply vulnerable to the consequences of natural disasters.

In 1977, unusually heavy snowfall hit Brazil, the primary supplier of Arabica, causing major damage to farms and a massive spike in coffee prices to accommodate the decrease in supply. The recent droughts and political unrest have created similar conditions, and even massive coffee suppliers like Nestlé are raising their coffee prices and shrinking the sizes of their packages.

With the demand for coffee ever increasing and climate change affecting the supply, some small suppliers hope to embrace the price increase and spread the idea that coffee is a luxury product rather than a staple. They hope this shift will help fund the coffee farmers–who have been hit the hardest by the droughts–and encourage consumers to buy from small businesses.

But, whether consumer perspectives shift or not, climate change continues to have devastating consequences for agriculture and the economy.

Sources: BBC, NPR, NY Times, CNN, Business Insider