Posted on 07/22/2021 1:04:00 PM PDT by blam
On Tuesday, a wicked cold snap, with temperatures dropping below zero, delivered a massive blow to farmers across Brazil’s coffee belt, damaging trees and destroying next year’s crop, according to Reuters.
Temperatures in Brazil’s coffee-growing regions recorded -1.2 Celsius (29 Fahrenheit) on Tuesday in southern Minas Gerais, which was the coldest since 1994.
“I’ve never seen something like that. We knew it would be cold, we were monitoring, but temperatures suddenly went several degrees down when it was already early morning,” said Mario Alvarenga, a coffee producer with two farms in Minas Gerais, Brazil’s largest producing state.
A #coffee farm in the Cerrado region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Crops blackened blackened by frost. #ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/rLipNK786j
— Maytaal Angel (@ReutersAngelM) July 22, 2021
Futures for arabica beans in New York soared more than 7.5% Thursday. Since Tuesday’s frost, future prices are up more than 23.5%, hitting 6.5-year highs.
The unexpected frost is compounding issues for farmers who have been inundated with massive droughts. Meanwhile, probabilities for a return of La Nina this fall/winter are increasing.
Another day of low temperatures in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, & Paraná states. The frost this time hit much more places. 70% of my clients were hit 40% severely. Temperatures in low soil layers were -4,4°C.Sadly the situation is getting worst. ~Jonas Ferraresso, São Paulo, Brazil pic.twitter.com/2kxrnzGirB
— Stuart A. Brown (@StuOnGold) July 22, 2021
“I will probably have to take out some 80,000 trees, they are burned all the way to the bottom,” said Airton Gonçalves, who farms 100 hectares (247.11 acres) of coffee in Patrocinio, in the Cerrado region of Minas Gerais.
“I was going to the farm yesterday, and a sensor in the truck started to alert me about ice on the road. I thought the system had gone crazy. But when I got to the farm, it was covered in ice, the roofs, the crops.”
Gonçalves estimates his production in 2022 will decline to approximately 1,500 bags from 5,500 bags.
Ana Carolina Alves Gomes, a coffee analyst at Minas Gerais agriculture federation Faemg, said that frosts were also reported in the south of Minas Gerais in the Mogiana area in Sao Paulo.
“Only time will tell how much will be lost. We already had a small crop this year,” she said.
Coffee broker Thiago Cazarini, who operates in Varginha, South Minas, said estimates so far suggest exporters and agronomists see a potential reduction of 1 to 2 million bags in next year’s harvest.
“For a clearer view, proper time is needed. Next week it will be more accurate,” Cazarini said.
We’ve warned that cheap coffee is no more, and a global deficit is coming.
Adding to the already extreme food inflation, Americans will likely be paying more at Starbucks in the coming months, if not next year, for their favorite expresso. So to say inflation is “transitory” is an understatement as it will linger through 2022.
I bought a one year supply of coffee after reading this article.
I have some set aside. Vacuum packed.
Well, on the one hand, ya got yer droughts, and on the other hand, ya got yer torrential rains. And some place, you see, they got heat waves like you wouldn’t believe. Of course, other people get those cold snaps.
What I think we should do, is panic.
I guess I will hold onto those sealed coffee containers with outdated stamps on them.
My feelings exactly!
That's normal where I live. Coldest time of the night is around 7 in the morning.
I have quit believing this stuff about coffee. I think people are trying to manipulate the market. I have noticed over time that the predicted price increases never seem to materialize in any big way. Plus, Brazil is hardly the only place in the world where coffee is grown.
Dubai making its own rain to beat 120-degree heat.
They stole Rove’s weather machine. If a butterfly wing flap can cause a hurricane imagine what this could do. LOL
https://nypost.com/2021/07/21/dubai-making-its-own-rain-to-beat-120-degree-heat/
In all seriousness, cooling part of the world and causing rainstorms might have an effect. How global temperatures are tied together is still an imperfect science.
It’s simple, when you see the prices going up, buy less of it or don’t buy it at all.
I’ve reduced my coffee consumption by about 70 percent!
That’s the way you deal with rising prices and the greedy.
I’m assuming below zero means 0 Celsius.
I have several months worth of coffee in my pantry. When my favorite brands go on sale at Costco, I buy a couple of bags. If they don’t go on sale, I use what’s in my pantry. It helps me even out price swings.
Thanks for the heads up.
Off to the market to stock up now! What do you think...ten big cans?
(Wonder who all bought coffee futures...)
Brazil isn’t the only coffee producing country but it is by far the largest. 2 million tons a year. I agree the speculators like volatility, they can make money that way. And with the gubbmint confetti-buck snoblower machine set to “HI” blowing dollars far and wide coffee is guaranteed to get spendy no matter what.
For a short while, about a year, during WWII coffee was rationed, one (1) pound every 35 days. I’d be making sure all my kids signed up too, whether they drank coffee or not!
FearPorn! We are all gonna die!
More likely we’re all going to fall asleep.
What a coincidence. Your blog post is identical to one at Zerohedge.
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