25/10/2025

LYFE SATURDAY | OCT 25, 2025

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N EW Yorkers run on coffee. From high-end experimental boutique cafes to the humble sidewalk cart, millions of cups of java are sold every day. But coffee-lovers are facing increasing pain as they pay for their simple espresso shots and elaborate pumpkin spiced lattes as the cost of beans has jumped 21% between August 2024 and August 2025 in the US, the world’s largest market for coffee. Climate shocks drove the cost of arabica soaring, with the beans hitting an all-time high in February 2025. That has been compounded by elevated transport costs and the 50% tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump since Aug 6 on many products from Brazil. Brazil, the largest coffee producer, has been sanctioned by the Trump administration for its prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro for a coup attempt. It supplies 30% of the US’s unroasted beans. “It’s having a major impact on us, on small business owners, on farmers, across the board,” New York-based chain Birch Coffee co-founder Jeremy Lyman told AFP. Founded in 2009, the brand has 14 outlets citywide, roasting its own specialty coffee in Queens since 2015. “The price of coffee on the market has just been on a steady incline over the last probably year. I think it’s gone up about 55% from this time last year... it’s impacting the prices that we charge,” Lyman said. He said Brazil’s production had become “unaffordable”, forcing Birch to look elsewhere for beans with its importer “pushing pause” on its

50 cents to cups sold in-store, and US$2 (RM8.44) to US$3 per bag of roasted coffee sold online. “Typically, it’ll be small, incremental (increases) because it also helps us get a little bit more time to navigate how we’re going to be sourcing,” he said, adding that he tried to give customers two weeks of warning. Other cafes have adopted a novel approach: adding an adjustable premium to the base price of each cup according to what level Trump has set tariffs that day, Lyman said. But customers will only swallow so much, the Birch founder said, warning of a real risk of losing customers. Jason Nickel, 45, said while he still seeks out a daily caffeine hit, he is “a little more careful about where I go”. He cannot imagine paying more than US$6 a cup, including tip, for cortado – an espresso shot with a dash of milk foam. Anna Simonovsky, 32, said her upper limit had gone from US$7 for a latte, a milkier, frothier drink than a cortado, to as much as US$10. She enjoys coffee as a treat for special occasions, such as a visit with a friend. Trump recently threw a lifeline to the two-thirds of Americans who drink coffee daily when he placed coffee on a list of products not cultivated by US farmers in sufficient quantity – potentially exempting it from tariffs, alongside tea and cocoa. And in a rare glimmer of bipartisanship, coffee-loving Republicans and Democrats are jointly sponsoring a bill intended to protect coffee products.

From high-end experimental boutique cafes to the humble sidewalk cart, millions of cups of java are sold every day.

Brewing crisis

o Java-loving New Yorkers confront soaring coffee costs

United by coffee Lyman acknowledged market forces have meant price hikes for his customers, with Birch adding

as of September compared with the year before with importers looking instead to Mexico, Peru and Ethiopia.

orders unless specially requested. Cecafe, the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil, reported exports to the US have dropped almost 53%

New Yorkers run on coffee. – PICS FROM AFP

A display shows prices of various coffee and tea drinks at a coffee shop in New York City.

World Food Prize winners call for doubling of aid to combat hunger A malnourished child is fed with Ready-to-use Supplementary Food by her mother. – REUTERSPIC I N TER N ATIO N AL food aid must double to meet the needs of about two billion people worldwide who struggle to get enough to eat, said winners of an annual prize recognising contributions to reducing global hunger. non-governmental organisation Bread for the World, said famine was a problem in Sudan, Yemen, Gaza and Haiti, among other places. “When the need for help increased, the money was not there,” he said.

The UN World Food Programme recently reported global food aid was cut by 40% in 2025. The US, previously a top donor, slashed aid under President Donald Trump, and other governments such as the UK and France also reduced assistance. WFP cut aid in Democratic Republic of Congo by 75% and halved a hot meal programme in Haiti due to lack of funds, WFP assistant executive director Valerie Guarnieri said during the conference. “Donors are slashing their donations, for a variety of reasons,” she said. “There will be lives that will be lost, and global instability will increase.” David Beckmann, the 2010 prize winner and former president of

World Central Kitchen (nonprofit) founder Chef Jose Andres has not won the World Food Prize, but he joined the appeal. “Immigration is increasing and will keep increasing. The main reason people leave their countries is hunger,” he told reporters. The World Food Prize honours work in fields such as nutrition, environmental conservation, policy advocacy, rural development and plant and soil science. – Reuters

The World Food Prize was started in 1986 by Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, a US agronomist whose work with high-yield crops in the 1960s has been credited with saving one billion lives. A group of 28 prize winners, including Brazilian microbiologist Mariangela Hungria who received the award this year, issued the call during the Norman Borlaug Dialogue – an annual conference in Des Moines, Iowa.