– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Now, if you're watching us in Europe,

you may well be enjoying a very strong

coffee. It's early morning and a good

cup of coffee is required. But is our

traditional pickeruppper in danger of

becoming a luxury as prices sore? Well,

like other foods, the cost of coffee has

gone through the roof on international

markets. The price of coffee, especially

Arabica, has seen dramatic increases. In

some cases, going up by 70% over the

past year. Jason Archie Ain Pong from

the Fair Trade Foundation told me why

farmers are unable to keep up with

demand.

It's a supply and demand issue, right?

Um but fundamentally with farmers,

farmers are just unable to supply the

beans that we so greatly need, right?

For years of underpayment, um they've

been unable to invest in their farms.

And then you couple that with the fact

you now have climate change which is

causing real devastation across many

farms. You've now got a recipe for

disaster. And so the demand has remained

high. Consumers were still drinking our

coffee, but farmers themselves are just

unable to supply the beans because of

the issues that they face right now on

the ground.

So consequently, the price of coffee is

is going up and up and and America, I'm

assuming, are huge consumers and for

them they're seeing even higher prices

because of tariffs.

Rightly so. Rightly so. I think there

are a range of um factors as well sort

of geopolitical tensions which are

causing challenges across shipping

routes in terms of supplying coffee out

of regions such as East Africa. But then

also when we look at factors such as um

the tariffs as you mentioned right

Brazil is arguably one of the most the

leading um exporters of Arabica coffee

also robuster as well and you know the

recent imposition of tariffs on on the

nation has caused real volatility and

also uncertainty in the market and that

creates real significant challenges as

well on the pricing of coffee as well

and with prices rising significantly and

you just explained why that is. Does

that mean the choice to go sustainable

is less likely?

In fact, you know, the choice to go

sustainable is even more so important as

we see when we look at pricing at the

moment and the challenges we're facing.

The issue is mainly because farmers have

not been invested in. They have been

unable to invest in their farms and are

now tackling real key issues on the

ground. You know, recent studies have

shown that by 2050, nearly 50% of the

global surface area currently used for

coffee farmer coffee farming may no

longer be suitable.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
coffee /ˈkɒfi/ A1	noun - a hot drink made from roasted and ground coffee beans
price /praɪs/ A1	noun - the amount of money expected for something
demand /dɪˈmɑːnd/ B1	noun - the need or desire for something
supply /səˈplaɪ/ B1	noun - the amount of something that is available verb - to provide or make something available
increase /ɪnˈkriːs/ A2	verb - to become larger or greater in size or amount
farmer /ˈfɑːrmər/ A1	noun - a person who works on and owns a farm
invest /ɪnˈvɛst/ B1	verb - to put money into something to earn a profit
climate /ˈklaɪmət/ B1	noun - the weather conditions in an area over a long period
sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbl/ B2	adjective - able to be maintained at a certain rate or level
tariff /ˈtærɪf/ B2	noun - a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports
volatility /ˌvɒləˈtɪlɪti/ C1	noun - the quality or state of being like to change suddenly
geopolitical /ˌdʒiːoʊpəˈlɪtɪkəl/ C1	adjective - relating to the political and economic relationships between countries
deviation /dɪˈviːeɪʃən/ B2	noun - the act of departing from an established norm or course
uncertainty /ʌnˈsɜːrtənti/ B2	noun - a state of having limited knowledge about something
challenge /ˈtʃælɪndʒ/ A2	noun - a difficult task or problem