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Hands picking coffee. Photo by JENS BUTTNER / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
International coffee prices reached high levels this year. Photo by JENS BUTTNER / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP.

Does the coffee smell like a bonanza?

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International coffee prices have been at all-time highs for quite some time. According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), the robustas variety reached the highest level in the last 47 years during two consecutive months between July and August.

This news comes at a time when the International Coffee Day is being celebrated this October 1st. The issue has relevance for coffee producers in a large part of Latin America such as Colombia, Brazil, Honduras, and Peru, the region's main historical producers.

The ICO calculates an indicative price (I-OIC) to show how the sector is doing worldwide. According to the most recent report, the average price per pound of coffee in the world was US$2.3892 in August, which represents an increase of 1.0% compared to July 2024.

“The August 2024 I-CIP is above the August 2023 I-CIP by 54.6%, with the 12-month rolling average at US$1,9289/lb.”, explained the ICO in its August report.

Undoubtedly, the news is very positive for the coffee growers of the world who have already begun to feel relief in their pockets.

For example, according to the growth figures recorded by the Colombian official statistics department (DANE), coffee growing has been one of the industries that has contributed the most to the economic recovery this year.

According to official figures, in the second quarter of this year (April to June), coffee growing grew 25.8% compared to the same period of the previous year and contributed 2.5 points of the total growth of the agricultural sector, which was the main driver of the country's economy.

But the president of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, Germán Bahamón, explained that the sector is not going through a bonanza. During the launching of the fair “Cafés de Colombia Expo 2024” he assured the media that "There is no bonanza, but at this moment there is a compensation for a bad situation in 2023″, as reported by Publimetro. According to this media, Bahamón highlighted that "who supported the growth of the Colombian GDP was the agricultural sector and within the agricultural sector he highlighted the growth of the coffee sector."

Coffee growers are going through a good price moment. Experts project that this year "world coffee consumption is expected to grow by 2.2% to 177.0 million bags, with non-producing countries making the biggest contribution to the overall increase.  Coffee consumption in this group of countries should expand by 2.1%," informed the ICO in its projections for this year.