Trump's Colombia tariff threat raises fears on coffee prices
Source: Axios
Updated 8 hours ago
President Trump's threat to impose retaliatory 25% tariffs on Colombia briefly ignited fears of a further surge in already high coffee prices.
Why it matters: Beans from Colombia make up 20% of U.S. coffee imports, and the only source larger, Brazil, is struggling with weak crops after a series of weather disasters.
Catch up quick: On Sunday Trump said he would impose an emergency 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Colombia — rising to 50% in one week — after the country refused to accept two deportation flights from the U.S.
A few hours later, the White House said it was pausing those tariffs after Colombia agreed to Trump's terms.
Zoom out: Coffee prices were already surging before the tariff threat.
Coffee futures are up 45% in the last six months. Bloomberg reported last week that wholesale prices recently eclipsed all-time highs set in the late 1970s, and that it was only a matter of days to a few weeks until retail prices followed suit. As it stands, consumer coffee prices are already at multi-decade highs, per Consumer Price Index data.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/26/trump-colombia-tariffs-coffee
Since coffee is a global commodity, even if something like this didn't impact other coffee export countries like Ethiopia or Jamaica or even here, with Hawai'i's kona crop, the commodities market sets the price trends.
Meanwhile I have a coffee plant overwintering in my basement at the moment. Am hoping that it will have its first bloom this year (it'll be 8 years old this year so now coming into maturity).
= new reply since forum marked as read
and as a commodity on the global markets, the speculators will run rampant like they do with "threats" to the oil supply (actual/realized ones or not). 
They were already up before this latest brouhaha. Commodities react on "threats", whether "perceived" or "actual". "Supply" and "Demand" might come in second although these types of price rises often prompt "demand" (just in case) and that reduces the supply, forcing more upward pricing.
(above from here - https://www.seeitmarket.com/commodities-analysis-the-january-trend-trade/)
It's no different than what happens if Turkey decides to threaten to attack the Kurds in Northern Iraq - then since Iraq is an oil-producer, that will "set the global oil markets off into the stratosphere" with speculative trading.
Five dollars, during the time she was shopping.
We are living in hell 
and just put in an order for some jars of instant this morning to be delivered today.
The k-cups are now showing "shipping in 1-3 weeks".
of the regular stuff. Thanks for the suggestion 
and saw the egg section almost empty with a taped-up sign apologizing about it being due to "supply issues", I thought about that for coffee too, so figured I better get some before they suddenly run out! 
