Severe drought has ravaged the coffee crop in Brazil this season putting the squeeze on an industry already grappling with the impact of tariffs, The Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Coffee prices have nearly doubled over the past five years, making what is typically a morning staple for two-thirds of Americans into a luxury item. In 2025, the average price per pound of coffee was just over $7 per pound, a far cry from the $4 per pound in 2020. While tariffs are a factor, it’s the changing weather and vanquished crops that have primarily forced coffee farmers to turn down buyers and adapt to a new reality.
Arabica coffee accounts for 75% of the world’s production and 40% of that comes from Brazil. With demand for coffee surging in China, Brazil’s drought has seen some farmers in the Alta Mogiana region lose nearly all of their harvest. The lucky ones have only lost a third. The crop has become so scarce farmers now have to contend with not only changing weather patterns but theft as well. In January, criminals stole more than 500 bags of coffee, valued at close to $230,000, from a farm in Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Rodrigues Alves is an exporter of artisanal coffee who used to be able to count the American giant Starbucks as one of his many clients. But not this year. “I don’t have any coffee,” he said to one client then adding to another, “I’m out of stock, nothing, zero.” Alves lost more than 200 acres to drought this year forcing him to over-prune the surviving crop in the hopes it can recover three years from now.
The shortage has become so great that Alves was able to sell his warehouse sweepings, typically discarded, to some buyers desperate for any produce. “Café porcaria, or junk coffee, was all that was left. “So, I sold it to them,” he said.
Tiago Donizete Rodrigues, 40, a third-generation coffee farmer, told the outlet, “I’m not going to be able to collect anything this year,” adding, “I’m going to have to buy coffee from other producers to continue selling to my clients.”
Last week, the U.S. National Coffee Association requested that the Trump administration exempt their product from the recently imposed tariffs, arguing the industry has already absorbed additional taxes on Canada and Mexico that will likely increased prices 50%. The association said there is no alternative to importing coffee and such tariffs cannot be used to address “unfair practices or incentive domestic producers” as they could in other industries.
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