The cost of a high street brew is set to go over £3, in what could be the latte straw for Covid-weary coffee lovers.
Experts say a mix of poor harvests, supply chain problems and higher transport costs have sent the global cost of coffee beans soaring.
And that means the price of a cappuccino – the UK’s most popular order – will rocket from £2.75 to around £3.57.
The increase will stir up yet more trouble for cafes hit by home working. City stockbroker XTB says rises of up to 30% are “inevitable” after the price of beans hit a 10-year high of $2.48 per lb last month.
Before Covid, our coffee chain market was worth about £4.5bn a year with more than 21,000 shops.
But lockdowns led to chains like Costa and Pret a Manger axing scores of branches.
XTB’s Joshua Raymond said: “We expect prices to keep rising due to many factors, including extreme weather.
“Brazil, which grows a third of the world’s coffee, saw production fall 20% last year due to droughts.”
