Coffee YouTuber James Hoffman makes a pretty convincing argument that we are living in the golden age of coffee. Lots of excellent coffee and it’s pretty affordable. But he thinks it could end soon.
Everybody knows that climate change could be a problem, but he says an even bigger problem is urbanization. The average coffee farmer’s age is 50-something and their kids don’t want to take over the farm, they want to move to the city. The people who are willing to work the farms, want to be paid a lot more, so there’s upward pressure on prices.
Right now cafes can charge $4-$6 for a coffee drink and people seem to be willing to pay it. As coffee gets more expensive, how many people are willing to pay $6-$8? For a lot of cafes, it won’t take much of a drop in business to kill them.
Everybody knows that climate change could be a problem, but he says an even bigger problem is urbanization. The average coffee farmer’s age is 50-something and their kids don’t want to take over the farm, they want to move to the city. The people who are willing to work the farms, want to be paid a lot more, so there’s upward pressure on prices.
Right now cafes can charge $4-$6 for a coffee drink and people seem to be willing to pay it. As coffee gets more expensive, how many people are willing to pay $6-$8? For a lot of cafes, it won’t take much of a drop in business to kill them.