First the drought came to Brazil, then the frost, roiling the world’s top coffee-growing region during the pandemic. Arabica coffee prices at one point last year were nearly twice their levels at the end of 2020. Investors are betting those weather effects, along with supply-chain snarls, will keep prices elevated in 2022.
Arabica coffee futures closed Tuesday at $2.37 a pound, after wrapping up January a little below monthly highs of $2.44. Futures traded at around $1.30 during the same time last year. They finished 2021 up 76%, the largest annual percentage gain since 2010, bringing higher prices for yet another raw material at coffee shops and breakfast tables.
“The coffee market has been on fire,” said
Dave Whitcomb,
head of research at Peak Trading Research. “This is the type of rally we haven’t seen in…
