Costa Rica is one of the major producers of coffee in Latin America. Around half of its annual produce go to the United States and one of its biggest customer is premiere coffee shop Starbucks. But it seems like the company has decreased or at least delayed its purchase of coffee beans from the small country.
According to reports, Starbucks is trying to cut cost in its inventories thus lowering their purchase of coffees in its favorite markets. This is after Starbucks suffered grand decrease in its sale due to the financial problems for the past couple of months.
However, some growers, especially those in neighbor Guatemala believe that the purchase is only being delayed by the company. The delay is allegedly to secure lower prices from growers who will surely lower prices if their produce will not be sold in the time they expected.
The last two years were hard beatings for Starbucks, but saw an increase in sales last week, which means they are starting to recover their losses, if there are. Those high priced coffees seem to secure huge funds even at the lowest economy rates.
And considering that most Starbucks operations are back to normal, like the one that re-opened near my house a few weeks ago after it halted operations to prevent further losses, it sure is a good sign for coffee growers in Latin America. Afterall, 75% of Starbucks coffee comes from the region.
