Us Irish do love a cuppa tea so that’s why it’s a tad worrying to hear that tea prices have jumped to an all-time high. What’s going on?
Is it true that my cuppa tea is going to cost me more from now on?
Sadly, my friend, yes it is true. Your cuppa tea will cost you a little more, but it’s not going to cost half as much as a cup of cat sh*t coffee. Seriously, cat sh*t coffee exists. Anyway, we won’t be too badly hit, but poorer tea drinking nations will.
Why will the poor people be hit the hardest? That doesn’t seem fair?
It’s all down to supermarkets and their profit margins. Basically, the wholesale price of tea has jumped a whopping 41 per cent higher than what it was back in January… this year. So it means that the supermarkets will be charged more for buying it. However, the mark-up on tea is quite high so in theory they should be able to lower the price without cutting too much into profits.
Seriously? It rose 41 per cent in just seven months, that can’t be right?
Would I lie to you? Rhetorical question by the way.
So what’s causing all the tea in China to disappear?
Recent droughts in East Africa and parts of Asia have caused widespread devastation to crops in those affected areas. Tea farmers aren’t getting half as much produce as they did last year, so it’s costing wholesalers more to buy it from the farmers. However, seeing as the profit margins are fairly high for tea in the Western world, we shouldn’t be hit too badly – as we already said.
Is that the only reason why my cuppa is on the up?
Not exactly. According to the Irish Independent, Stephen Twining, of Twining’s of London, said earlier this year that the price of tea was rising as demand was growing. So that’s more than likely a big factor too. Oh and in case you’re wondering, we talking about black tea, and none of that fancy other stuff like green tea.
Ah sure nobody drinks that muck. So should I stockpile on my Barry’s Tea now, while I still can?
Well, there’s been no indication as to how much exactly the Irish consumer is going to be hit with this price increase, but we can’t imagine it’s going to be that much. So we’d hold off for now, unless you have a massive free space in your gaff and a serious craving for a nice cuppa every five minutes.
