Title:
Looking for Answers to Rising Coffee Prices
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Economics Report.
See text below
Text:
Food prices are at their highest level since the
United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
began keeping records in nineteen ninety. The causes
include bad weather and growing demand. Some experts
also blame the use of food crops to make fuel. But
higher food prices are not always the result of
limited supplies. Coffee prices have jumped almost
fifty percent in six months. Prices have reached a
thirteen-year high. Yet growers expect their current
crop to be almost ten percent bigger than the last
one. JM Smucker is an American company known for its
jellies and fruit spreads. But Smucker also owns
Folgers, America's top-selling packaged coffee. And
it owns Dunkin' Donuts, which sells coffee to wash
down the doughnuts at its stores. In February,
Smucker said it would raise the prices of its coffee
products by an average of ten percent. It said the
increase is driven by the higher prices for coffee
beans.Experts say coffee prices are rising mainly
because people are willing to pay more. Coffee
sellers like Mark Warmuth say tastes are changing
and more people want a good cup of coffee.Mark
Warmuth owns the M.E. Swing Coffee Company in
Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington. He says big
coffee sellers like Starbucks help his business by
building a base of customers who want something
better.He said people are seeking something better
than what they can buy at Starbucks. They are
seeking out smaller, boutique, artisan, craft coffee
roasters, like his company.Yet Mr. Warmuth can thank
those bigger companies like Starbucks for spreading
the idea of coffee as an affordable luxury. The
thinking goes that during hard times, people might
not go on a trip but they might be willing to pay
extra for good coffee. The company supplies
restaurants and other businesses, but also has a
store in Washington near the White House. Customers
pay thirteen dollars for less than half a kilogram
of beans -- about double the price of other brands.
Greater demand for high-quality coffee has helped
drive coffee prices higher. That includes greater
demand among Brazilians. Brazil is the world's
largest exporter of coffee.People in India are also
drinking more coffee. Starbucks just announced plans
to enter that market in a deal with India's Tata
Coffee company. For VOA Special English I'm Mario
Ritter.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
