If it was bad aback then, just wait:

Cost of coffee soars as climate warms

The New York Times 3/10/2011

Production in Colombia has plunged amid higher temperatures, more rain and the arrival of new diseases.

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In 2006, Colombia produced more than 12 million 132-pound bags of coffee, and set a goal of 17 million for 2014. Last year the yield was nine million bags.

Brands like Maxwell, Yuban and Folgers have increased the retail prices of many grinds by 25 percent or more since the middle of last year in light of tight supply and higher wholesale prices.

Profits of high-end coffee chains like Starbucks and Green Mountain have been eroded. Coffee futures of Arabica, the high-end bean that comes predominantly from Latin America, have risen more than 85 percent since last June, to $2.95 a pound, partly over concerns about supply, extreme weather and future quality, said George Kopp, an analyst at the International Futures Group in Chicago.

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The Colombian Coffee Growers Federation says high fertilizer prices have also dented yields.

But it agrees with a 2009 report from the International Coffee Organization that concluded, "Climatic variability is the main factor responsible for changes in coffee yields all over the world."
Average temperatures in Colombia's coffee regions have risen nearly one degree in 30 years, and in some mountain areas the increase has been double that, says Cenicafé, the national coffee research center. Rain in this area was more than 25 percent above average in the last few years.

At the new, higher temperatures, the plants' buds abort or their fruit ripens too quickly for optimum quality. Heat also brings pests like coffee rust, a devastating fungus that could not survive the previously cool mountain weather.

The heavy rains damage the fragile Arabica blossoms, and the two-week dry spells that prompt the plant to flower and produce beans occur less often, farmers say. Arabica beans take about seven months to mature.

"Half a degree can make a big difference for coffee — it is adapted to a very specific zone," said Néstor Riaño, a specialist in agroclimatology for Cenicafé. "If temperature rises even a bit, the growth is affected, and the plagues and diseases rise."

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Starbucks has already bought enough coffee to last until 2012 ...

John