China’s New Love of Coffee Is Coming for Yours
The country’s strong appetite for the beverage is here to stay.
Employees at Luckin Coffee in Beijing preparing lattes.
Photographer: Jade Gao /AFP/Getty Images
Invariably, my Spanish breakfast consists of toasted bread with a dash of olive oil and fresh tomato — plus a strong coffee. For months, I had gone easy on the olive oil after prices surged to an all-time high. Now the price pain is spreading into my caffeine fix. Sigh!
The cost of robusta coffee, the bean variety used in instant coffee and some espresso blends, has surged 60% over the past year, reaching recently its highest in nearly half a century. Soon, that jump in wholesale costs will be reflected in supermarket shelves.
Ask any commodity trader why, and the answer is unanimous: a combination of bad weather in Vietnam, the world’s largest grower of robusta, plus competition there with another fruit crop, namely the durian for export into China. Alongside, robusta beans had been in demand as roasters last year anticipated that the cost-of-living crisis would prompt consumers to switch toward cheaper coffee blends.
Left unsaid, however, is a notable development that’s reshaping the market: China is now developing a strong taste for the beverage, heralding an era when coffee prices probably will be higher for longer than in the past. The new equilibrium level is unlikely to be as high as prices had been recently, though.