Everything always falls on you poor consumers. This is the instinctive reaction when we talk about increases in raw materials, energy and personnel costs, and consequently products. When the loved one is the victim of a price increase Cup of coffeethe revolt begins in Italy: and yet, it is precisely espresso that still costs too little today, especially quality espresso.
Espresso has increased by 15% in three years
We’re not just talking about specialty, but of simple good, clean coffees, carefully extracted by trained staff, in a bar where all employees are regulated and adequately remunerated. We talked about it with roasters, baristas, consultants and experts of all kinds, and they all agree on one point: espresso in Italy costs too little. The latest news comes from the news agency Handlewhich reported the current market data: the average price recorded for a cup drunk at the bar is today 1.18 euros in the main Italian cities, significantly higher than the 1.03 euros in 2021, for a total increase of 14.9% in three years.
Because the price of espresso increases
Altogathe national association of roasters, coffee importers and food wholesalers, explained that in the last six months the stock market prices of Robusta coffee have recorded an increase of over 90%, going from 2,200 to $4,195 per tonwhile those of the Arabica variety increased by 55%arriving at 239.85 cents per pound. This is the fault of the euro-dollar exchange rate, but also of climate change which is creating increasingly adverse conditions in some of the main producing countries such as Brazil, not to mention the crisis of the Suez Canal, strategic for all global trade routes, including coffee.
All this entails greater costs for the roaster, and consequently also for the operators: the costs, it is true, are partly passed on to the final consumer, just as is happening for the chocolate (again, the climate crisis has a hand: heavy rains in Ivory Coast and Ghana led to disastrous harvests, which gave little cocoa at higher prices) or for any other product subject to strong increases.
The Italian culture that has become a burden
With coffee, however, things are not so simple. The point is always the same: what should have been ours «espresso culture» – a beautiful tradition, a fascinating history to be carefully preserved – ended up becoming somewhat cumbersome baggage. A handbrake pulled for too long, which immobilized the “homeland of coffee” while all the other European countries (and beyond) moved forward developing new trends, refining techniques and evolving taste. Because yes, taste evolves, it happens with food, with wine, with beer, it has already happened more or less with everything, except black gold. Today, more and more research coffee shops and valid coffee roasters are being created in Italy, but this increase in quality cannot fail to go hand in hand with an increase in price.
Because it is unfair to pay one euro for the express
In no foreign country do you pay 1 euro for an espresso, or even less as happens in some places in Central-Southern Italy (indeed, a bar in Rome last year decided to further lower the price to gain public approval). Not even the less good one, which still has raw material, energy and labor costs to make ends meet: we must consider that to pay – adequately – the staff, almost the 50% of the turnover of a business must be allocated to salaries. Since 2006, then, with the trial of liberalization of licensesopening a bar has become much simpler: it is clear, therefore, that a business owner today has much more competition than in the past, a time when there was only one bar per neighborhood, which could count on much higher numbers and amortize thus the expenses thanks also to the large quantity of ground coffee every day (numbers much higher than the current average ones).
A single espresso cannot cost less than €1.50
A cultural heritage that continues to recur all too often, despite the great promotional work by trained baristas and roasters. Just take a look at the comments under Ansa’s Facebook post to understand how much further there is to go to undermine the unwritten rule according to which an espresso must cost a maximum of one euro. «I do it at home», «For me the bars can all close», «It doesn’t matter, I take it from the vending machine at work». Fortunately, however, there are also those who have defended the activities, trying to explain the reasons for the increase.
For us, however, a good espresso made with selected raw materials, respectful of the environment and of the workers on the plantation (we remember once again that coffee is a plant and, as such, has its own supply chain that involves a large quantity of people) today it can’t cost less than €1.50 euros for the single version, wanting to hold on tight. It may seem absurd to many but things, like it or not, are changing. They have already changed, as demonstrated by the increasingly greater attention to coffee in the recently opened establishments, not only bars but also bakeries, bistros, wine bars, kiosks that want to offer a rigorous service until the end (after all, it is the last memory of a meal!). Perhaps we will adapt sooner than expected to what has already been normality in the rest of the world for some time.
