{"id":523638,"date":"2026-07-13T10:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/523638\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T10:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:17:15","slug":"first-the-10-pint-now-the-6-50-flat-white-coffee-industry-faces-inflationary-pressures-coffee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/523638\/","title":{"rendered":"First the \u00a310 pint, now the \u00a36.50 flat white: coffee industry faces inflationary pressures | Coffee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drinkers across the UK were shocked<\/a> when a pint in some London bars hit \u00a310, and now a cup of coffee is facing a similar inflationary rate. Some baristas are now charging \u00a36.50 for a flat white.<\/p>\n

Higher energy bills, inflated by the war in the Middle East<\/a>, as well as government policies which have increased tax and wages, are filtering through into coffee prices, experts said.<\/p>\n

The price is also being raised by volatile weather in coffee growing regions, with a \u201csuper El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>\u201d, a weather phenomenon which causes extreme rainfall and drought, forecast for the end of the year. There was heavy rain in Brazil throughout June already, which will dampen harvests and cause prices to rise. In the week ending 28 June, rainfall was nearly 2,000% higher than the historical norm. Waterlogged fields precluded machinery from entering, and the rain severely worsened bean quality, delaying harvests to 52%.<\/p>\n

In Vietnam, the largest producer of robusta beans, farmers are fighting early drought, and fertiliser and fuel prices in the country have jumped by 30% year-on-year, and labour costs by 33%.<\/p>\n

The Italian coffee company Lavazza warned that the sector faced \u201cexceptional volatility\u201d, with arabica bean prices increasing by 230% since 2021 and robusta up 325% over the same period.<\/p>\n

The price of a takeaway flat white from Lavazza\u2019s main cafe in London has increased from \u00a34 to \u00a34.40, and from \u00a35.50 to \u00a36.50 to drink it in. Photograph: Bloomberg\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Giuseppe Lavazza, the company\u2019s chair, said: \u201cVolatility is the new constant. This has been a year of high turbulence and pressure, not just in the coffee market but in the general economy. The coffee<\/a> market now shows fundamental changes compared with the past. We are living in an environment we don\u2019t know very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said at least two years of good harvests from Brazil and Vietnam would be needed to calm the market. The weather conditions make this unlikely.<\/p>\n

The conditions, he said, have created \u201cthe perfect environment for speculators to step in to move the price to the record levels we\u2019ve seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lavazza has had to pass costs on to consumers. A flat white at Lavazza\u2019s main cafe near Regent Street in London has risen from \u00a34 to \u00a34.40 to take away, and from \u00a35.50 to \u00a36.50 to drink in.<\/p>\n

Coffees at other high street chains are also becoming expensive. A flat white is \u00a35.20 to take away in a central London Starbucks, and \u00a34.70 in Costa.<\/p>\n

Susannah Streeter, a chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said that this trend was likely to continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cArabica coffee prices have been highly volatile over the past two years, as extreme weather has disrupted supplies and fuelled sharp swings in the market,\u201d she said. \u201cWith coffee prices still prone to volatility and operating costs remaining elevated, many companies are building a buffer into their pricing to protect already tight margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Lavazza said sales of its coffee remained strong despite the higher prices.<\/p>\n

Streeter said: \u201cFor now, many customers appear willing to absorb higher prices. But there are limits to how much consumers will pay if the cost of a daily coffee continues to rise. While coffee enthusiasts may be prepared to pay more for a premium experience, businesses could find it increasingly difficult to sustain casual walk-in trade as prices climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grind says it makes very little profit by keeping its flat white price down. Photograph: PR Image<\/p>\n

The founder of the artisan coffee chain Grind, David Abrahamovitch, has kept his flat white at \u00a34.10, but said this only yielded an 18p profit. He said that for a \u00a34.10 flat white, \u00a31.60 was spent in staff costs, 55p for the mugs and paper cups, 96p for core operating costs, 68p on VAT, and various other costs added another 13p. He said the price of green coffee beans, which have yet to be roasted, had more than doubled since 2024.<\/p>\n

Paul Rooke, the executive director of the British Coffee Association, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen significant volatility in global coffee markets over the past few years, and that looks set to remain a feature of the sector for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price consumers pay is also influenced by domestic factors facing all businesses, such as rising energy, labour, and regulatory compliance costs. Despite these challenges, demand for coffee remains strong, supported by continued innovation across the sector, especially in the growing ready-to-drink market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drinkers across the UK were shocked when a pint in some London bars hit \u00a310, and now a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-523638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}