September
26, 2013
International Coffee Day is Sunday, September
29. To mark the occasion, this edition of The Editor’s Desk looks at trends in
coffee prices over the past decade. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for coffee
reached its most recent peak in January 2012. Coffee prices then started
declining and were 10 percent lower in August 2013 than in January 2012.
The decline in coffee prices in 2012 and 2013
follows a sharp increase in prices in 2011. The CPI for coffee was 21 percent
higher in January 2012 than in January 2010. Despite the recent price declines,
the CPI for coffee was 38 percent higher in August 2013 than it had been 10
years earlier.
Prices for roasted coffee generally have
increased more rapidly over the past decade than prices for instant and freeze
dried coffee. The CPI for roasted coffee was 41 percent higher in August 2013
than in August 2003. By comparison, the CPI for instant and freeze dried coffee
increased 23 percent over the same time period.
If coffee is not your cup of tea, you may be
interested to know that prices for other beverage materials, including tea,
increased 14 percent from August 2003 to August 2013.
These data are from the BLS Consumer Price Index program and are not
seasonally adjusted. To learn more, see "Consumer Price Index — August
2013" (HTML)
(PDF),
news release USDL‑13‑1884.