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Global Coffee Shortage Looms as Market Braces for Climate Change

  • Crop needs to rise by 50 million bags in 10 years, Illy says
  • Producers, industry groups meeting this week in Milan
A worker separates coffee cherries during harvest at a plantation in the Minas Gerais state near Guaxupe, Brazil.

A worker separates coffee cherries during harvest at a plantation in the Minas Gerais state near Guaxupe, Brazil.

Photographer: Patricia Monteiro /Bloomberg
Whitney McFerron

The coffee-drinking world needs another Brazil, the world’s top grower and exporter of the beans, if it’s to avoid a shortage.

Rising consumption, especially in emerging markets, means global production will have to rise by an extra 40 million to 50 million bags of coffee in the next decade, said Andrea Illy, the chairman and chief executive officer of Illycafe SpA, a roaster based in Trieste, Italy. That’s more than the entire crop of Brazil.