There has been an interesting article in the news recently, thanks to Food Bev.com, about the ups and downs of the coffee industry.

Perhaps we don’t think about the wider global picture when we buy our favourite cup of coffee on the way to work in the morning, but the coffee industry is very significant   a huge international industry, which has a series of ups and downs of its own.

For instance, it seems that the price of coffee has gone down a little recently   although prices were lower in 2012 compared to 2011 – that’s an average of 156.34 US cents per pound in weight for 2012 which is a drop of 25.7% compared to the previous year – and coffee is still more valuable than any other year over the past decade.

These figures were taken from the International Coffee Organisation.

Despite the dip in prices, in terms of crop production, things are looking especially rosy in some countries.

For example, in Africa and Indonesia, output has increased.

The big South America coffee producer, Brazil, is said to be up for a bumper crop of 50.83 million bags this year, made up of both the robusta and arabica coffee beans.

Other parts of the world are not so lucky and have suffered thanks to the weather.

Coffee crops in Central America have been hit by disease and coffee pests.

All in all, however, things are looking good.

The general appetite for coffee the world over is described as ‘buoyant.’

So let’s raise our coffee mugs to the success of the coffee bean in 2013.

Bottoms up!