FGV 2025.2Questão 44de 60According to the information in the article, which of the following is most likely, at least partially, a result of

WHAT’S HAPPENING TO COFFEE? By Todd Carmichael

A good cup of coffee is an affordable luxury. Unfortunately, it’s becoming less affordable by the day. In a major shift to U.S. trade policy, the Trump administration’s April 2nd “Liberation Day” tariff package has introduced import duties [tarifas] on raw coffee beans, a move that’s sparking [provocando] alarm in an industry already strained [sobrecarregada] by record-high prices. In February 2025, the global price of arabica coffee reached US$4.41 per pound, the highest price in history, surpassing the spikes [picos] of 2011 and the Brazilian frost [geada] crisis of 1975. That milestone [marco] occurred before any tariffs were announced, and though the price has since receded, it remains at elevated levels. As of June 2025, a pound of roasted coffee cost U.S. customers nearly 13 percent more than it did a year earlier. Now, with new duties added, a wave of panic is rippling [espalhando-se] through the global coffee trade. The United States is the world’s largest importer of raw coffee. Coffee, much like bananas, is a tropical fruit. But coffee is even pickier [mais exigente]: it doesn’t need just the heat and humidity of the tropics; it can typically grow only at tropical altitudes. These conditions are found almost exclusively in a narrow band around the Equator, often referred to as the “coffee belt.” Within the United States, only a tiny fraction of land in Hawaii and Puerto Rico meets these requirements, making domestic coffee farming extremely limited. Though some farmers are finding success growing coffee in the microclimate of Southern California, American labor costs and limited production keep California-grown coffee at a price point [faixa de preço] that most Americans simply cannot afford. Despite that, the United States is the largest coffeeconsuming nation in the world. And an enormous amount of work happens after the coffee leaves the farm: importing across oceans, processing and grading [classificação], transporting to roasters [torrefadores de café], roasting [torrefação] to bring out flavor, packaging, and finally preparing, selling, and serving it to millions of people every day. Coffee farming might start in the tropics, but the coffee industry inside U.S. borders is massive.

For decades, coffee entered the country duty-free, a recognition of its foundational role in a U.S. industry that supports more than 1.7 million American jobs. That exemption is now gone. In April, the Trump administration implemented a 10 percent baseline tariff on nearly all imported coffee. This month, it raised tariffs on dozens of trading partners, with coffee-producing nations India, Indonesia and Vietnam facing sharply higher rates. Coffee from countries with strong trade agreements with the U.S., including Mexico and Colombia, remains exempt, for the most part. Yet Brazil, the world’s largest producer of coffee, was slapped last week with a 50 percent tariff. Brazil provides about 30 percent of the coffee consumed in the United States, so this will massively impact both coffee prices and the industry within U.S. borders.

Adapted from The Washington Post, August 11, 2025