Categories
The Coffee Watch report Coffee Prices Skyrocket from Decades of Deforestation warns that decades of coffee-driven deforestation have destabilised rainfall patterns, caused crop failures, and now fuel price spikes through supply shortages and speculative trading. As forests once acted like natural sponges, absorbing excess water and stabilising local climates, their destruction has left coffee crops vulnerable to droughts, floods, and unseasonal rains.
This environmental degradation has shrunk supply and triggered speculative surges in global markets, mirroring the recent cocoa crisis where a 10 percent shortage led to a 300 percent price rise. Unless addressed, ongoing deforestation and farmer responses to high prices will worsen shortages and drive even steeper increases.
The report argues that the solution lies in halting new coffee-related deforestation and transforming existing monoculture farms into agroforestry systems, where shade trees protect crops and restore ecological stability. Agroforestry will not replicate full forest functions but offers far greater resilience than monocropping.
Thousands of ethical farmers and companies are already piloting agroforestry, supported by certification schemes such as those developed by the Smithsonian. The main barrier is not knowledge but industry will, as urgent transformation is needed to secure both the future of coffee and wider climate stability.
