South Africa can sip more Brazilian coffee, says expert
While American consumers brace for costlier brews, South Africa, which imports nearly 24 000 tonnes of coffee annually (mostly from Brazil and Vietnam), may stand to benefit, according to Sihlobo.
Brazil, already the world's top coffee producer, could increase exports to South Africa if it offers better quality and prices.
'I know our domestic tea and coffee producers won't like me saying this,' says Sihlobo. 'But hey, we have a decent demand for coffee (just like we do with other ' substantive beverages ' like whiskies, where we spend over US$300 million on imports annually).'
In light of this, The South African website compared coffee prices across 10 of South Africa's most popular coffee chains.
The comparison highlights just how much consumers are paying for their caffeine fix.
For the comparison, we looked at the price of a 'tall' Americano, Caffe Latte and Cappuccino.
Listed in alphabetical company order Company Americano Caffe Latte Cappuccino Bean Tree Cafe R55.50 R49.50 R45 Bootlegger R37 R42 R43 McCafé R27.50 R33.60 R32.30 Mugg & Bean R39 R45 R40 Seattle Coffee Company R30 R33.50 R33.50 Starbucks R38 R45 R45 Vida e Caffè R39 R46 R43 W Cafe R34 R41 R41 Wild Bean Cafe R29.88 R47.88 R45.88 Wimpy R36.90 R44.90 R42.90
NOTE: The prices above were taken from the individual coffee shop and cafe's website or online research and were accurate at the time of publishing.
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