Wholesale coffee prices are dropping so why isn’t our morning fix getting cheaper W holesale coffee prices are dropping. This might be hard for you to believe if you stopped by Starbucks or Second Cup on your way to the office, but the price of coffee has fallen to its lowest level in more than a decade as the world's demand for coffee shows no sign of slowing with 35,000 cups of coffee being consumed around the world every second of every day. The price of a pound of arabica coffee beans has dipped below $1 US this year on the world's biggest commodities exchange in New York. This might not seem like a lot but that is about half of what it was as recently as 2016. The reasons are complex, but broadly they boil down to what is happening in Brazil, the world's largest producer of coffee beans. Brazil's coffee farmers produced almost 70 million bags of coffee last year representing nearly 40 per cent of the world's supply. Brazil has dominated the worldmarket for more than a century, but in recent years the country has been cranking out even more beans than usual and other coffee producing countries aren't content to simply let Brazil fill all of that demand so we are seeing a major global overproduction of coffee, which is pushing down wholesale prices to their lowest level in years. So, if wholesale prices are down, why hasn't it filtered down to big savings for consumers. Well, for major multinational coffee chains, the wholesale price of beans is a fairly small part of their operational costs, behind things such as employee salaries, rent, marketing and other expenses, and with those staying flat or increasing do not expect any changes to pricing anytime soon.
Uniting Canada on the Court A fter24yearstheNBAFinalshavearrivedinCanadawithconsiderable excitement even for those that are not die-hard basketball fans. Canada which is known for its crazy hockey fans are now pumped to see their Toronto Raptors going shot for shot with the defending NBA champion, Golden State Warriors with games drawing huge crowds and big television numbers in Canada, while ratings remain lukewarm south of the border. The Raptors, who finished this regular season with the NBA’s second-best record, set the bar high in the NBA playoffs, when Kawhi Leonard sunk his Game 7 buzzer-beating shot against the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 6 of the second round of the playoffs, moving the Raptors on to play the Milwaukee Bucks for the a chance to make it to the big show.
Cannabis edibles and infused products offer huge market opportunities C anada is gearing up to legalize cannabis- infused foods, beverages, topicals and other next-generation products in the coming months, once the Trudeau government in Ottawa approves and rolls out its final regulations for these products that reports from Deloitte say, could account for more than half of the estimated $2.7 billion annually in cannabis sales. Cannabis companies, as well as food and beverage manufactures, have been preparing to launch their own pot-infused products which they anticipate will appeal to a broader customer base, particularly those who aren't interested in smoking weed but rather eating it. The federal government wrapped up its consultation on the draft edible rules in February and has said the new regulations for cannabis edibles and infused products must be brought into force no later than Oct. 17, 2019.
Recent ruling just another blow to Canadian oil sector T he Canadian oil sector got more bad news when a Minnesota court ruled that Enbridge Inc’s environmental impact statement for replacement of its Line 3 oil pipeline is inadequate, raising the possibility of further delays. Not something the sectors wanted to hear as the Line 3 project would double current capacity to 760,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude from Alberta to Wisconsin, which would provide much- needed relief fromcongestion on existing Canadian pipelines. It is the furthest advanced of three proposed pipeline expansions — along with the Canadian government-owned Trans Mountain and TC Energy Corp’s Keystone XL — that would ease Alberta’s oil glut, unfortunately all have been facing court challenges and long delays.
Going into the East finals the team and fans knew they were in tough as they had come up short against Cleveland Cavaliers in three previous years finals. But that was not the case for these Toronto Raptors, they won the series against the Bucks and now have the opportunity to bring the NBA championship north of the border for the first time in the league’s history.
For Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Raptors, the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team and the Toronto FC soccer club, the season’s success has been successful regardless of the outcome, but they are focused on the NBA Championship as a redemption following decades of futility, most notably by the Maple Leafs of the NHL, which have gone since 1967 without a Stanley Cup Championship and MLB’s Toronto Blue Jays which have not won a World Series title since going back to back in 1992 and 1993. Basketball continues to grow in popularity in Canada and it is interesting how far the Toronto Raptors have come, as the NBA franchise is now worth more than its NHL hockey cousin, at $1.7 billion versus $1.5 billion for the Maple Leafs, according to Forbes. •
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JULY 2019
13 JULY 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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