UK coffee drinkers should brace to pay more for their morning fix in the coming months as domestic coffee roasters start to pass on increased import costs.

London’s small-scale coffee roasters, who help supply the capital’s burgeoning taste for a quality roast, are facing a steep price rise in coffee beans after the pound slumped to its lowest level in 30 years against the dollar.

As with most imported commodities, roasters pay for the raw product in US currency, and the foreign exchange reaction to Britain’s vote to exit the European Union has jolted the market.

Customers of Square Mile Coffee Roasters, based in East London, have to pay 50 pence more for some 350-gram bags of coffee ordered online, representing an increase of 3 per cent to 5 per cent, according to owner Anette Moldvaer.

“We ended up paying a lot more for our green coffee,” Moldvaer said in an interview. The second payment on a $150,000 order of 18,950 kilograms of Costa Rican beans got about $7,500 (£5,644) more expensive after the June 23 EU referendum.

“We kind of got caught in the middle of it as far as our payments were concerned.”

Square Mile roasts around 120 metric tonnes of green coffee beans per year, sourcing from countries such as Brazil, Burundi and El Salvador. It then sells to coffee houses wholesale, and to individual customers online.

The costs will inevitably be passed onto the customers, of which Prufrock Coffee, a cafe and barista-training center, based in London’s Clerkenwell, is one.

The impact on sales of drinks tends to lag a few months behind as roasters first clear stocks of beans.

“Roasters are buying large quantities of green coffee that last them 6 to 12 months,” owner Jeremy Challender said over an espresso.

The real squeeze will come as roasters order their next batches before Christmas — if the pound fails to recover — and pass the extra costs onto outlets, he said.

Prufrock also imports a significant proportion of coffee from roasters on the European continent where the weak pound is already bumping up costs.

“Suddenly we’re paying more,” Challender said.

Already due to the high cost of rent in London, Challender’s customers are paying almost double what they were five years ago, he said. Prufrock charges £2.20 pounds for an espresso and £2.80 for one with milk.

Coffee Crisis

The short-term effect of Brexit is exacerbating the upward trend in the price of premium arabica coffee. Requiring high altitudes, the best coffee takes longer and is more challenging to grow.

When combined with an increased global demand for top-end coffee, climate change and crop disease, the price inevitably rises and is borne by the consumer.

“There is a crisis in the world of coffee, a long-term crisis where the industry is starting to wake up,” Jeffrey Young, chief executive officer of Allegra Group, a U.K. consultancy, said by phone.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Coffee’s addictive nature may temper the blow as consumers are generally willing to bear price increases for their fix, he said.

Moldvaer at Square Mile is also optimistic about the future despite the weak pound. “The cost of coffee is always volatile,” she said, and her customers tend to be understanding. Besides, Brazil is apparently in line for a bumper crop of good coffee this year — just in time for the Christmas order.