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Why coffee in Norway could be pricier in 2022 

Frazer Norwell
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Why coffee in Norway could be pricier in 2022 
The price of raw coffee rising will have a knock-on for consumers in Norway. Pictured is a coffee machine making an espresso shot. Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash "

The price of raw coffee beans recently reached its highest level for ten years, media in Scandinavia report, a trend that is likely to impact the price consumers pay for a cup of joe. 

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Raw coffee is currently the priciest it’s been at any point in the past ten years, business and finance media outlet E24 reported this week.

The cost of coffee has doubled per kilo since last year, jumping from 18 kroner per kg to 37 kroner. The price rise is despite the Norwegian kroner being relatively strong compared to the dollar, which beans are traded in. The New York Stock Exchange sets the price of raw coffee. 

“I think we are seeing a new normal when it comes to the industrial market price of coffee,” Ola Brattås, head of imports with Norwegian chain Kaffebrenneriet, told E24.

Drought in Brazil, linked to illegal rainforest logging and climate change, is reported by E24 as a critical factor in coffee prices. The International Coffee Organization’s September 2021 report also mentions weather in Brazil.

Brattås predicted that the higher prices were here to stay, which would have a knock-on effect for customers. 

“This will be mean a slightly higher price for coffee in the store, but nothing that will ruin the family economy,” he explained. 

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The impact of the higher prices is also being felt in Denmark. Lars Aaen Thøgersen, head of communication and development with Danish coffee company Peter Larsen Kaffe, said that costs were already being passed onto consumers, a trend that will continue.

“Consumers can already feel that prices have gone up now, and it will quite likely also be felt further,” he told Daniah news wire Ritzau. 

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“But it should also be put into perspective because if you calculate per cup of coffee, a consumer will only notice a few øre (price difference),” he also noted.

Chief importer for Kaffebrenneriet, Brattås, said he hoped that the high prices would encourage more people to produce coffee, especially if farmers were to see the benefits of the increased prices. 

“It is a more sustainable price in terms of access to coffee in the long run. If some of this increase benefits the farmers, there may be a greater chance that the next generation will also want to work with coffee and not move into the city and try their luck there,” Brattås said.

Brattås also argued that the price rises were a good thing as they could help convince farmers that growing quality coffee was more financially viable. 

“The market price of raw coffee has been far too low for far too long. For our part, this does not have any consequences in the short term, but in the long term, we have to pay so much more than what the raw material exchange provides to convince coffee farmers that it is worth the extra effort it requires to produce high-quality coffee,” 

Kaffebrenneriet pays around three times as much for coffee as the price on the raw material exchange, according to Brattås.

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