Kayla Wemp, Centretown News
After rising prices at major chains such as Tim Hortons and Starbucks, Ottawa’s independent coffee shops may be pressured to follow suit. Centretown coffee lovers may swallow a more expensive cup of their daily brew if independent coffee shops and roasters follow the trend of raising their prices in response to a volatile bean market.
Coffee bean prices nearly doubled in 2014 as Brazil, the world’s largest coffee supplier, was hit by one of the country’s worst droughts in decades, according to a BBC report.
Brazil produces half of the world supply of Arabica beans, a popular type of bean that is used by coffee chains and suppliers worldwide.
In response, Tim Hortons raised the price of its coffee by an average of 10 cents per cup in late November, mimicking price increases earlier in the year from competitors such as Starbucks, Folgers and Keurig K-Cup, according to Tim Hortons spokesperson Michelle Robichaud.
“We were able to hold our pricing stable since the spring of 2011, however due to rising operational costs we recently introduced a moderate increase on some of our menu items,” Robichaud said in an email.
Henry Assad, owner of Happy Goat Coffee Company, a coffee roasting company and retailer with a processing facility in Hintonburg, says despite a 30 per cent increase in the cost of beans over the past three months, he has not raised the price.
“For the time being we’re basically taking a hit and absorbing the loss of profit,” says Assad. “But if coffee bean prices continue to go up we will have to consider changing our prices.”
Happy Goat Company sells its products to a variety of grocery stores and coffee shops in the Centretown area.
For a small independent vendor, it would be difficult to raise prices for its local customers, says Assad.
Ian Clark, director of Bridgehead Coffee in Little Italy, says they have not yet increased the prices of their cups of coffee but says it is hard to determine whether they will have to in the near future as the market is extremely volatile.
“Last year, we went from expecting a global surplus of coffee and really low prices, to doubling within a period of months,” he says. “People are trying to predict what will happen this year, but there are many reports saying different things.”