Supply chains for coffee have been facing some difficulties, per Yahoo! Finance. The U.S., as you can probably imagine, is usually very good at having a nice, big pile of coffee in order to make sure that everyone is able to stay just as caffeinated as the situation requires. Unfortunately, we live in unusual times, and that stockpile is now smaller than it’s been since 2015. Normally, this would be just a matter of buying more from, say, Brazil. The country is all set to deliver, too — there’s just nothing to deliver it with.
Per Deutsche Welle, the world of supply chains is currently dealing with an acute lack of shipping containers, thanks in part to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the increased shipping needs the assorted lockdowns have caused around the world. Though there is coffee, and buyers who want it, the two are currently separated by a significant geographical distance, and until the shipping container bottleneck is resolved, the situation may remain as such.
At the moment, multiple operators say they’re unwilling to raise the price of coffee for the consumer. However, the shortage in the years 2021-22 is estimated to be over 10 million bags of coffee. This is compounded by the fact that Brazil’s recent crop was weather-damaged back in the fall. With the buffering stockpiles rapidly dwindling into stock anthills, coffee futures have already started to rise.
