And it’s all thanks to climate change.
Globally, coffee demand is ramping up: humans consumed 151m 60k bags of coffee last year, and China’s consumption alone has doubled in the past 5 years.
In fact, coffee is the most traded commodity in the world after oil.
And bean growers are under a lot of pressure to produce
Brazil is the largest coffee producer in the $100B+ bean market (followed by Vietnam and Colombia), but for the past 2 years, global consumption has outpaced production.
Growers are still relying on surpluses accumulated in 2013 and 2014 to keep up with demand, and while farmers are expected to produce a record 153m 60kg bags of coffee this year, that still doesn’t leave much of a buffer.
But first, climate change
Studies project that higher temps and shifting rainfall could make over 90% of bean-growing land unsuitable for farming by 2050 — raising bean prices from $1.28/lb over the record high $3.39/lb in just a few short years.
In other words, lattes could be the reason gen Z-ers can’t buy houses.