Price hike will not keep drinkers from their qahwa

Across the region, the increase in the price of coffee has not stopped consumers from drinking.

Egypt 

As in any part of Cairo, the aghwa, or sidewalk coffee house, is a masculine social fixture in Agouza, a small middle-class neighbourhood on the banks of the Nile.

In the Pearls of Abdel Harith cafe, which has stood in the same drab spot since 1959, the varying prices for food and fuel compete with sports scores as the primary topics of conversation.

But even after Gamal Abdel Harith, the cafe's owner, increased the price of a cup of Turkish coffee - the muddy brew that is often flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg - to 1.75 Egyptian pounds (Dh1.10) from 1.5 pounds each four months ago, few customers seemed to notice.

"For me, it's not that important. I will keep drinking no matter what," said Mohammed Misbah, 45, who is one of the nearly 10 per cent of Egyptians who is unemployed.

Mr Misbah said he drinks two or three cups a day, along with five or six glasses of hot tea - Egypt's staple hot beverage.

"A few minutes ago, I had a headache and I had to drink this coffee," he said.

Mohammed Abdel Harith, Gamal's younger brother and a part owner in the cafe, said he passed off the rising cost of his raw Brazilian beans to customers after the price of a kilogramme rose to 32 pounds from 22 pounds before the summer.

The brothers buy between 15kg and 20kg of beans each month. From each kilogram, the brothers estimate they squeeze about 30 to 35 cups.

Although they have received few complaints, the brothers report a drop of about 20 per cent to 30 per cent in coffee consumption.

- Matt Bradley in Cairo 

Kuwait 

Mia Ponzo, whose Kuwait-based online business sells traditional Arabian products worldwide, said the increase in the price of coffee over the past two years has been "unbelievable".

"People haven't stopped drinking coffee because prices have gone up.

The coffee shops are jam-packed every day anyway, but it must be affecting the customers' budgets," said the owner of the Desert Boutique. Kuwaitis' love of coffee has provided international companies with a rich market.

When the Starbucks chain opened in Kuwait in 1999, the store became its first of more than 300 in the Middle East.

Other international coffee brands have mushroomed in the country's streets and malls to compete with the traditional shisha cafes.

"People drink a lot of coffee in Kuwait. Turkish coffee is super huge here and trillions of coffee shops have sprouted up everywhere,"

Mrs Ponzo said. The Desert Boutique sells a 18-gram bag of Al Rifai Arabic coffee for US$15 (Dh55), but "it used to be around $11 or $12 less than two years ago".

- James Calderwood in Kuwait City 

Qatar 

Coffee drinkers at Gloria Jeans Coffee on Doha's C Ring Road were unaware of the sharp rise in coffee prices. And next door at the Coffee Bean, no unusual increase in the cost of their java, either.

"We just raised the prices one to two rials (Dh1 to Dh2) earlier in the year like we always do," said Garner, the manager of The Coffee Bean shop.

Many of the bigger international chains control their entire product chain, so suffer less during price fluctuations.

"We grow our own coffee so we don't have to worry too much about the rise in prices," said Ahmad Hijazi, the Qatar operations manager for Gloria Jeans.

Across town, however, Nedal Ghazal is feeling the pinch.

"There's no way can we live with these prices," said the general manager of Coffee Centre, which distributes gourmet coffee and tea to restaurants, hotels and businesses in Doha.

"Prices keep going up and it seems it will not stop," he said.

Many of its contracts run through the end of the year, so increases cannot be passed on until then. But that is not all.

"The prices for cardamom, which they often use with coffee around here, have gone up more than 200 per cent," he said.

- David Lepeska in Doha 

UAE

Coffee shops in the UAE are trying to hold the line on prices even as the cost of coffee beans rise globally.

Most of the large chains would rather absorb the extra cost than risk losing customers in a competitive market.

"We've had talks at the head office, the price of beans is higher, but with the conditions of Dubai, we aren't going to raise prices," said Deepak Gukuyz, a manager at a coffee bar chain with nine outlets in the country.

Their worries may be unfounded.

"The price of petrol concerns me more than the price of coffee," said Leone Engelbrecht, who often works from coffee shops.

- Megan Detrie in Abu Dhabi