You Could Soon Be Paying Even More for a Good Cup of Coffee

Get ready to pay a higher price at your local cafe: Worldwide, the people who grow coffee beans are drinking better coffee, and that could boost the price of a cup of joe.

As the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday:

Coffee consumption is rising at a breakneck pace in Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia, which together produce 60% of the world's beans.

Brazilians' purchases of packaged coffee is expected to total 1.03 million tons this year, surpassing the U.S. as the world's top coffee drinker for the first time since at least 1999, according to market-research firm Euromonitor International.

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Globally, demand is expected to hit a record this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The International Coffee Organization, an industry group, sees consumption growing twice as fast in countries that export coffee as in importers such as the U.S. and Italy.

Coffee futures spiked in 2011, doubling over the course of a single year before tumbling to dramatic lows in 2013.

Futures are now rocketing upwards again, and this time, due to the more discerning taste of coffee-producing countries, the impact could be more permanent.

Image via NASDAQ

"My business is growing very fast," Isabela Raposeiras, the owner of a São Paulo cafe, told the Wall Street Journal.

She told the paper that a cup of Brazilian bean coffee at her establishment, Coffee Lab, can cost as much as 12 reais — about $5.50.

The fact that Brazilians will pay that price "shows how good quality is becoming a habit, and people are not going back to bad cups," she said.

According to the International Coffee Organization, the price Americans pay for Brazilian Arabica beans has tripled since 2001, going from around 50 cents per pound to more than $1.50 per pound in July 2014. Colombian beans saw a similar spike, rising from 72 cents per pound in 2001 to nearly $2 per pound last month.

Featured image via Shutterstock

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