With inflation on the way up in the UK, and more slowly in the eurozone, prices for everything are on the way up.
Of course we had the price of oil come down recently – the view is that speculators have been pushing up prices to unrealistic levels.
The same applies for coffee as it does for oil – note Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz giving speculators a roasting in the media lately.
Coffee prices on the market hit a 34 year high basically due to a speculating frenzy according to the Starbucks man.
He called for more transparency in world markets in order to identify those responsible for pushing up raw material prices.
He said that the spike in the cost of commodities such as coffee and other foodstuffs is not based on supply and demand, but based on market speculation. Farmers who actually produce the commodities are receiving a “de minimus” proportion of the price rises.
Kind of sounds familiar on a more local level doesn’t it – in times gone by, mushrooms and more recently milk both spring to mind as foodstuffs where the producer has been squeezed, as prices go up.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes of Mr Schultz’s outcry – who really is behind the price surges?
