WAKING up and smelling the coffee will be more expensive from today. Bewleys blames market forces for an increase in the price of its staple brew.
From April 1st a mug of coffee at Bewleys cafes will cost £1.05 instead of the usual 99p, an increase of over 6 per cent. Other retailers have indicated they will be forced to follow suit soon.
Mr John Farrell, general manager of Bewleys Oriental Cafes, said that while the increase was regrettable it had been caused by "considerable problems" with coffee bean stocks on the world market.
"We are naturally very hesitant about passing on this increase to customers, but since the start of the year the price of the raw coffee bean has doubled and there is a 27 per cent drop forecast in the next Brazilian crop," he said.
Coffee is the second most traded commodity on stock markets behind oil. A source at Bewleys Coffee Ltd in Dublin said factors such as "cold weather in Brazil, political unrest in Colombia and an increase in demand for coffee worldwide" have all contributed to price rises over the last four years.
Supermarket chains and other outlets are also to begin marking up their coffee prices this month. Quinnsworth estimates an extra 10p to 20p will be added to a 100g jar of instant coffee. Mr Eamon Quinn, marketing director of Superquinn, confirmed an increase "anywhere between five and 15 per cent" is anticipated in its stores.
According to Mr Pablo Dubois of the International Coffee Organisation in London, Bewleys and the other outlets are "more than justified" in increasing coffee prices.
"In January some very pessimistic estimates of next season's coffee crops led to an immediate rise in the cost of the raw bean. This has been compounded by a shortage of stocks in the United States," he said.
"We estimate that the movements in the market mean that as much as a 17.5 per cent increase should be passed on to the retail price. Nobody can really quibble with what the retailers are doing. These increases have already been passed on in the UK," Mr Dubois said.