Lifestyle

R600 pain for coffee drinkers in South Africa

Malcolm Libera

 ·24 Nov 2025

Coffee has been one of the most volatile items in South Africans’ shopping baskets over the past few years, with prices rising far faster than most other foods and drinks.

Instant coffee in particular has seen sharp increases, driven by supply problems in major coffee-producing countries and higher production costs.

In August 2024, instant coffee prices increased by 22.3% year-over-year, and since 2022, the category has risen by 35.7% overall—adding around R600 to household spending each year.

Ground coffee and beans increased more slowly at 13.6%, but instant coffee drinkers were hit the hardest.

Most of the price pressure came from poor harvests in key producing regions. Brazil, which produces almost 40% of the world’s coffee, had a weak 2023 harvest after heavy rainfall in Minas Gerais caused pest and disease outbreaks.

Vietnam, the top producer of robusta beans used in instant coffee, faced two years of drought and extreme heat, leading to consistently low yields.

These problems, combined with global supply chain disruptions, pushed international coffee prices sharply higher.

Andrew Fulton, Director at Eighty20, explained that the impact was immediate. “My own personal favourite went from R400 a bag to R800 a bag,” he said, adding that the increase “priced me out of it completely.”

Although 2024 brought another shock, prices have started to stabilise. Fulton noted that coffee prices had moderated since then and that overall inflation has cooled. 

However, coffee is still expensive relative to other goods. With CPI at 3.6%, instant coffee prices are still rising by around 10% a year.

Fulton pointed out that this is an improvement from the more than 20% increase seen a year earlier, but it remains far above the general inflation rate.

Understanding coffee inflation has also become more complicated because Stats SA recently updated the CPI basket.

“They recalibrated the basket for CPI, and they actually removed ground coffee,” Fulton said.

Ground coffee previously recorded inflation of about 13.6%, but it has now been replaced with rosé wine and snuff.

That leaves instant coffee as the only coffee item officially monitored, even though it doesn’t represent the full market.

Despite high prices, demand is recovering. After shrinking during the steep increases, coffee consumption has bounced back. 

“Coffee consumption in South Africa has gone up by 8% in the last year,” Fulton said. Global production has also reached record levels, helping to ease some pressure.

Despite this, many households still feel the strain. While the worst spikes are over, a 10% annual increase—nearly three times the CPI—means coffee remains a costly part of the monthly shopping budget.

Instant pain

Considering the massive increases in coffee prices, BusinessTech looked at the costs incurred by instant coffee drinkers, comparing the cost of Jacobs Instant Coffee 200g from Woolworths from November 2022 to 2025.

Looking at the invoices, the price for a 200g jar of Jacobs Instant Coffee increased from R139.99 in 2022 to R189.99 in November 2025, presenting a massive 35.7% increase.

However, there is clear moderation in the price of instant coffee as the price only increased 2.7% year-on-year from 2024, although the final outcome shows that prices still have not recovered from the shock in 2023/24.

According to Eighty20, approximately 22.7 million South African adults, or half of the adult population, consume coffee daily, with instant coffee being the most favoured type.

These consumers, who drink an average of 1.7 cups per day, use roughly 4g of coffee per cup.

This consumption pattern means an average instant coffee drinker goes through one 200g jar monthly.

Using the R50 difference in the price of the coffee in 2022 vs 2025 and the average drinker drinking 12 Jacob jars of instant coffee a year, it means the price increase has cost instant coffee drinkers an extra R600 per year.