As if life in the eurozone’s economically embattled periphery were not bad enough, the coffee culture emblematic of southern Europe is under siege. Italians are having to cut back on their cappuccinos and espressos and Spaniards are dropping their cortados, fuelling a sharp fall in wholesale coffee prices.
The coffee industry has long seen demand for the drink as constant, but now consumption per capita is down in Italy and Spain to levels last seen five to six years ago, largely because of the sovereign debt crisis.
The cost of the high quality arabica coffee in New York, the global benchmark, is down 40 per cent from a 34-year high set last year to $1.75 a pound. Arabica prices last year surged to $3.089 a pound after Colombia, the largest producer of high quality beans, had a poor harvest due to bad weather.