Barista bandits! Beans get cheaper but coffee goes up

IT’S enough to whip coffee-lovers into a latte-lathered fury.

Despite coffee bean prices falling to their lowest level for seven years, the cost of a high street cappuccino has risen by up to 20 per cent.

Research by the MoS found the price of beans on the international markets has plunged 67 per cent since 2011, from £2.23 per pound to a low of 74p last month.

Yet in that time, a ‘tall’ cappuccino in Starbucks that cost £2.15 in 2011 now costs £2.60 in most outlets – a 20 per cent increase, according to industry experts Allegra.

Rival Caffe Nero’s regular cappuccino has risen 40p from £2.30 in 2011, at Pret a Manger it has gone up from £2.19 to £2.45 and at Costa, the £2.15 ‘primo’ now costs £2.35.

MPs last night accused the coffee giants of making extra profit at the expense of their customers and called for the price falls to be passed on.

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: ‘It leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It’s time the corporations passed on wholesale savings to consumers.’

And Labour’s Caroline Flint, who serves on the Public Accounts Committee, said: ‘British consumers have a right to ask why they aren’t passing on the fall in price.’

The extraordinary contrast between the price of a high street coffee and the coffee-bean market emerged after Costa Coffee was bought by Coca-Cola for £3.9 billion and Pret a Manger was sold to German-owned JAB Holdings for £1.5billion. Selling coffee is now so profitable that the UK market has grown larger than Italy’s, according to Allegra. Britain now boasts about 24,000 outlets, while the amount being spent by customers is growing at 7.3 per cent a year.

The falls of the wholesale price has been widely attributed to a global oversupply of beans. This will have provided a financial boost to chains such as Caffe Nero, whose parent company Italian Coffee Holdings said in its latest set of accounts that it made a profit of £26million.

Both Caffe Nero and Starbucks have in the past come under fire for paying less corporation tax than they could on UK profits.

A Starbucks spokesman said: ‘Many factors contribute to pricing decisions, including rents, labour, competition, distribution, commodities – and coffee.’

A Costa spokeswoman said: ‘The price of a cup of coffee does not simply reflect the cost of the beans.’ A spokeswoman for Pret a Manger said: ‘Our coffee prices take into account the cost of our ingredients, as well as operational costs such as wages.’

Caffe Nero declined to comment.