Coffee Prices Rise Due to Bad Weather

Those of you who can't live without your morning Starbucks might soon be paying the price: the cost of coffee rose for the fourth straight month, thanks to Colombia's worsening crop. 

The Associated Press reports that the price of coffee for December rose more than $0.10, to about $1.73 per pound. Doesn't sound like much, but it's the highest price of coffee since August. The reason? Colombia, the second largest producer of Arabica coffee beans, has been hit with nasty weather and heavy rainfall since 2008. (Coffee beans need dry weather to flourish.) For the fourth year in a row, analysts predict a smaller harvest from Colombia, which will affect prices. The National Federation of Coffee Growers in Colombia said it will harvest 8.5 million bags of coffee beans, compared to the 9 million estimated earlier, reports Bloomberg. 

Another large producer of coffee beans has also been hurt by bad weather; Brazil has predicted an 11 percent drop in the harvest from 2011, thanks to heavy rain. If this trend continues, a morning cup may soon become a luxury. 

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