Coffee production could decrease by as much as 50% by 2050, according to a new report by The Climate Institute in Australia.
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According to the report, rising temperatures encourage the growth of fungi and pests, which could make half of the world’s coffee farming land useless. The disappearance of the coffee plant would have a profound impact on the 120 million people worldwide whose livelihoods depend its beans.Coffee-drinkers are also expected to see flavour and aroma seriously impacted -alongside soaring prices for the ever-scarcer beans. The crop is the second most valuable commodity exported by developing countries with a value of $19 billion in 2015.
The Irish Independent reports that wild coffees, including Arabica, could also be wiped out in the next 70 years.
But it’s not just climate change that’s affecting coffee production. If only because we’re not sure how we’ll get anything done once it’s gone. The Climate Institute is not the first to warn about the bleak future of the coffee bean.
Mario Cerutti, Green Coffee & Corporate Relations Partner at Lavazza, added: “We have a cloud hovering over our head”. In 2011, Starbucks director of environmental affairs, Jim Hanna told the Guardian, “What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road - if conditions continue as they are - is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain”.
Climate change is expected to strain infrastructure in those countries.
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Consider coffee brand Maxwell House and its iconic slogan, Good to the Last Drop!, which may turn out to be the world’s most prescient advertising motto.
