Bad news for coffee lovers: Lean harvest may lead to higher coffee prices
Bernardo Sotelo Jr. is the head barista for Masa Bakehouse, a well-known café in San Juan, La Union. He says that rising costs for coffee beans could force the shop to consider increasing drink prices.
Coffee enthusiasts may soon face higher prices due to a lean harvest, according to the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. (PCBI). The organization predicts that coffee production may fall short of 30,000 metric tons this year, largely due to the impact of El Niño and rising input costs. The drop in domestic production has made local beans more expensive, and the higher costs of shipping coffee products to the country have further driven up prices.
While imported Brazilian coffee beans currently cost around P650 per kilo, Arabica beans are priced between P700 and P750 per kilo. Local beans, on the other hand, can fetch from P750 to as high as P900 per kilo. Despite the increased costs, the PCBI chairperson, Pacita Juan, notes that coffee varieties have been planted at higher altitudes due to rising global temperatures.
This shift has resulted in a 35,650 MT production in 2025, an 11.5 percent increase from the previous year. However, the reliance on imported coffee remains, as local production only meets about 40 percent of the country's demand. Smaller cafés, which typically mix local and imported beans, are particularly vulnerable to price hikes.
Written by urgent.news from Philippine Star Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
