Shutterstock |
Saturday 20 April 2024
ANZAC Day the 25th April - the importance of remembering
Saturday 30 March 2024
Easter 2024
Shutterstock |
Friday 29 March 2024
Price of coffee
Think $5.50 is too much for a flat white? Actually it’s too cheap, and our world-famous cafes are paying the price
Emma Felton, University of South AustraliaEven in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee.
Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have bitten over the past few years.
So too have prices. Though many of us became upset when prices began to creep up last year, they’ve since largely settled in the range between $4.00 and $5.50 for a basic drink.
But this could soon have to change. By international standards, Australian coffee prices are low.
No one wants to pay more for essentials, least of all right now. But our independent cafes are struggling.
By not valuing coffee properly, we risk losing the internationally renowned coffee culture we’ve worked so hard to create, and the phenomenal quality of cup we enjoy.
Coffee is relatively cheap in Australia
Our recent survey of Australian capital cities found the average price of a small takeaway flat white at speciality venues is A$4.78.
But in some international capitals, it’s almost double this, even after adjusting for local purchasing power parity.
In London, a small flat white costs about A$6.96. Singapore, A$8.42. In Athens, as much as A$9.95.
The cafe business is getting harder
Over the past few decades, coffee prices haven’t kept pace with input costs. In the early 2000s, after wages, food costs, utilities and rent, many cafes earned healthy profit margins as high as 20%.
The most recent data from IBISWorld show that while Australian cafe net profits have recovered from a drop in 2020, at 7.6%, they remain much lower than the Australian average business profit margin of 13.3%.
For an independent owner operating a cafe with the average turnover of A$300,000, this would amount to a meagre A$22,800 annual net profit after all the bills are paid.
What goes into a cup?
Just looking at the cost of raw inputs – milk, beans, a cup and a lid – might make the margin seem lucrative. But they don’t paint the whole picture.
Over the past few years, renting the building, keeping the lights on and paying staff have all become much bigger factors in the equation for coffee shop owners, and many of these pressures aren’t easing.
1. Green coffee price
Increasingly subject to the effects of climate change, the baseline commodity price of green (unroasted) coffee is going up.
Arabica – the higher quality bean you’re most likely drinking at specialty cafes – is a more expensive raw product. Despite levelling off from post-pandemic highs, its price is still trending up. In 2018, it sold for US$2.93 per kilogram, which is projected to increase to US$4.38 dollars in 2025.
Robusta coffee is cheaper, and is the type typically used to make instant coffee. But serious drought in Vietnam has just pushed the price of robusta to an all-time high, putting pressure on the cost of coffee more broadly.
2. Milk prices
The price of fresh milk has risen by more than 20% over the past two years, and remains at a peak. This has put sustained cost pressure on the production of our most popular drink orders: cappuccinos and flat whites.
3. Wages and utilities
Over the past year, Australian wages have grown at their fastest rate since 2009, which is welcome news for cafe staff, but tough on operators in a sector with low margins.
Electricity prices remain elevated after significant inflation, but could begin to fall mid-year.
Specialty vs. commodity coffee: why price expectations create an industry divide
One of the key factors keeping prices low in Australia is consumer expectation.
For many people coffee is a fundamental part of everyday life, a marker of livability. Unlike wine or other alcohol, coffee is not considered a luxury or even a treat, where one might expect to pay a little more, or reduce consumption when times are economically tough. We anchor on familiar prices.
Because of this, it really hurts cafe owners to put their prices up. In touch with their customer base almost every day, they’re acutely aware of how much inflation can hurt.
But in Australia, a huge proportion of coffee companies are also passionate about creating a world-class product by only using “specialty coffee”. Ranked at least 80 on a quality scale, specialty beans cost significant more than commodity grade, but their production offers better working conditions for farmers and encourages more sustainable growing practices.
Although not commensurate with the wine industry, there are similarities. Single origin, high quality beans are often sourced from one farm and demand higher prices than commodity grade coffee, where cheaper sourced beans are often combined in a blend.
Running a specialty cafe can also mean roasting your own beans, which requires a big investment in expertise and equipment.
It’s an obvious example of doing the right thing by your suppliers and customers. But specialty cafes face much higher operating costs, and when they’re next to a commodity-grade competitor, customers are typically unwillingly to pay the difference.
Approach price rises with curiosity, not defensiveness
When cafe owners put up their prices, we often rush to accuse them of selfishness or profiteering. But they’re often just trying to survive.
Given the quality of our coffee and its global reputation, it shouldn’t surprise us if we’re soon asked to pay a little bit more for our daily brew.
If we are, we should afford the people who create one of our most important “third spaces” kindness and curiosity as to why.
Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Sunday 24 December 2023
Christmas 2023
Wednesday 28 December 2022
New year 2023
Shutterstock |
- The global economy continues to contract with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October 2022 reducing its global growth forecast from 2023 to 2.7%, compared to a 2.9% forecast in July, amid combined pressures from the war in Ukraine, high energy and food prices, inflation and sharply higher interest rates. The IMF has warned that conditions could worsen significantly during 2023. Most of the professional investment firms and funds agree and have continued to hold large cash reserves.
- The Russian - Ukrainian war, initiated by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin commenced on 24 February 2022 and has now continued for over 10 months with no resolution in sight. The Ukrainian government and the country's armed forces have held their ground with Western military assistance and continue to do so. The impact of this conflict has been felt across the world and far beyond Europe's borders.
- COVID-19 continues to pose a threat despite the development of capable vaccines including new generation mRNA ones. The sudden opening-up of China in December 2022 after a high level of restrictions through the country, coupled with low vaccination rates and poorly performing locally produced vaccines has seen staggering infection rates in that country. The risk of new variants arising in China being a key concern of the World Health Organisation. China has now ceased publishing data on infection rates.
- Climate change and global warming will remain in the centre of critical issues to combat as extreme weather events remain a threat world-wide. 2023 will be no different.
Saturday 17 December 2022
Christmas 2022
Saturday 17 September 2022
Sunday 22 May 2022
2022 federal election loss for the Liberal Party - where to now ?
Shutterstock |
- 76 seats are needed in the House of Representatives to become a Government
- Australian Labor Party on 71 seats
- Liberal National Party on 52 seats
- Other being Independents or The Greens have 15 seats
- Counting on postal votes and prepoll is continuing as over 6 million eligible voters used these methods.
- Liberal/National has 35.4 % (a fall of 3.29%)
- Australian Labor Party has 32.8 % (the ALP vote actually fell 0.5%)
- The Greens has 12.1 % (increased by 1.7%)
- One Nation has 5.0% (increased by 1.9%)
- United Australia Party has 4.3% (increased by 0.8%)
- Independents have 5.51% (increased by 2.14%)
- Others are at 4.95%
Saturday 16 April 2022
Easter 2022
Shutterstock |
Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday (referred to as Pascha in Armaic, Greek or Latin) commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, three days after his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary dated approximately at 30 AD. This period is a cultural festival and holiday for those of the Christian faith marked by hot cross buns, chocolate eggs (and bunnies) and preceded a week earlier by Palm Sunday.
Monday 27 December 2021
The year that was 2021 and the year that is coming 2022
Shutterstock |
2021 is a year that most people would prefer to simply disappear. To describe the last twelve months as 'challenging' is a misnomer and under-estimation of the level of difficulty with which Australia and the world has had to contend. A listing of some of the key events of 2021 provides a brief insight -
- COVID-19: just as the vaccines (from pharma companies, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer and Moderna) rolled out in large quantities, the virus mutated not at all surprisingly. New variants most notably Delta and the almost sci-fi name of 'Omicron' became the new dominant mutations raising the concern that the virus may be able to break-through the vaccines. As global management consultancy, McKinsey & Co commented "COVID-19 continues to pose risks, and managing it as endemic will require a momentous societal shift. Perhaps the hardest part will be coming to terms with the idea that this is no temporary phenomenon; we all must make permanent behavioural changes after the crisis". COVID-19 is here to stay and the pandemic remains an ongoing crisis into 2022.
- AUKUS: The announcement of a new strategic alliance titled AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom and The United States) took many countries by surprise not the least, France, that had a contract to build new diesel submarines for Australia. The new alliance included providing Australia with the capability to build nuclear submarines thus rendering the contract with France null and void. The diplomatic fallout was predictable and public.
- World economy and supply chains: the fact that the world economy did not shrink further is a surprise. The fact that global supply chains have been severely disrupted is not. With the supply of goods and services now segmented, out-sourced and distributed globally, delays and shutdowns in several countries affected the rest of the world. A single container ship, Ever Given, stuck in the Suez Canal caused losses estimated at USD $9.6 billion per day. The experience of COVID-19 has led to calls in many countries for better self sufficiency in the future, yet the impact of this situation will continue for the next few years.
- Taliban return to power in Afghanistan: the 20 year war in Afghanistan ended with the Taliban once again in power. The Western nations appeared shocked and surprised however closer examination has shown the inevitability of the Government in Kabul falling from power. Non existent relationships with local provincial communities, massive corruption and an army that was not paid for months all led to the demise. The lessons of previous civil wars clearly had not been heeded.
- New US President: Joe Biden was elected president of the United States defeating Donald Trump leading to hopes that the US would again play a role in international relations that Trump had largely abandoned. Biden certainly reopened dialogue which his predecessor had closed off.
- COP26 Climate Change - Glasgow: COP26 ended without the major agreement that many people and nations had hoped. Against the backdrop of the latest IPCC report, many important decisions were reached such as for methane emissions and there was understanding that CO2 emissions must be reduced well before 2050. The US and China joint statement made it clear that reductions are needed this decade by 2030 if global warming is to be averted. Yet concrete tangible agreement across the world which leads to meaningful target reductions remained elusive.
- Australia's vaccine rollout: despite having tackled the COVID-19 virus effectively in the first year, Australia's vaccine program faltered and ran too slowly in the second pandemic year allowing the virus to reach a foothold again through the Delta variant. By the end of 2021 Australia had caught up with the rest of the world and had administered over 42 million vaccine doses with many States now reaching over 90% of the eligible adult population (over 16 years of age).
Friday 24 December 2021
Christmas 2021
Shutterstock |
Friday 19 November 2021
Ethics Index 2021: Australians faith in ethical conduct declines
Shutterstock |
- Overall Australians do consider Australian society to be 'somewhat ethical' with Millenials and Generation X rating with slightly higher scores than Baby Boomers.
- Respondents to the survey were asked to rate the importance of ethics and then compare the importance to the actual perceptions of ethical behaviour.
- Health continues to rate as having high ethical behaviour with a net score of 72% similar to last year which has 73.
- Charity and and Not-for-profit sector were rated as very ethical with an ethics score of 66 from 2020.
- Public Sector as perceived as being 'somewhat ethical' with an Index score of 46 but within public sector services there were wide variations with fire services rating 85 and ambulance services scoring 79%. In contrast Judges, state,local and federal public servants and politicians were all seen to be less ethical in 2021 than 2020.
- Federal Parliament rated a very dismal ethical score of -11 and is seen as the least ethical organisation.
- Media sector had a significant fall in ethics rating falling from 22 to 2%.
- Top ethical issues are consistent with previous years. 'Corruption' is in the top position as with previous years followed by 'misleading and deceptive advertising' then 'çompany tax avoidance'.
- While corporate ethical conduct was fairly neutral, high levels of CEO pay was considered unethical.
- Climate change features strongly with the clear majority of Australians (87%) feel there is a moral obligations to take action on climate change, even if it reduces profits, results in job losses or lower jobs in the future (88%).
- Australians feel that the Federal Government has an urgent ethical obligation to take action on climate change (71%) and this has increased from 2020.
Wednesday 31 March 2021
The Easter Bunny - tradition, myth or the unknown
Shutterstock |
The origin of the Easter bunny and its role in being connected to Easter is much more odd with little actual evidence to show how the bunny came to Easter at all.
Shutterstock |
Wednesday 30 December 2020
New Year 2021
Shutterstock |
Saturday 11 April 2020
Easter 2020
Shutterstock |
Where did this custom and practice come from ?
There is no definitive answer and its likely that the current practice most likely evolved from a number of different customs over varying periods of time. Traditionally hot cross buns are part of the Christian calendar and are eaten during Lent from Shrove Tuesday to midday on Good Friday. Various anecdotal stories have recorded buns being baked as far back as 1361 (St Alban's Abbey) or occuring in the time of the last Tudor monarch of England, Elizabeth 1 in the 16th Century. Hot Cross buns are definitely recorded as being produced in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Prior to this later period there appears to be little actual records in existence.
Sunday 29 December 2019
2020 - the year ahead
Shutterstock |
Solutions for the environment need to encompass an array of issues including energy generation policy and distribution networks, materiels usage and life cycles (across all manufacturing sectors), further development of renewable energy and reduction in fossil fuel reliance and of urgent attention, climate change adaptation for food production and general living. Without all of these matters being addressed concurrently, life for human beings on this planet will become increasing difficult with a potential 4C temperature increase now a viable possibility.
As far as the world economy can be viewed, the two major influences are Brexit and the US/China trade war. Brexit may be less pronounced than first thought as the European Union has already advised that it intends to press ahead with a Free Trade Agreement with the United Kingdom as soon as Brexit is finalised. The US/China trade war has led to repeated renegotiation and has not, as yet, eventuated into a complete trade suspension and is mainly a tit-for-tat use of tariff measures. Around the world however low wages, low inflation, low productivity and low interest rates are closer to stagflation than recession.
On the international relations front, 2020 will begin with the ongoing matters from 2019 - Brexit, the US/China trade conflicts, some scale back in the Syrian war due to the likely success of the Assad Government in finally winning the civil war and the ongoing internal violence in Afghanistan and Iraq. China will continue to press its claim to the South China Sea and North Korea, although quiet at present may resume some further missile tests.
Happy new year !
Saturday 20 August 2016
Ethics - the professions and business - who do people trust ?
Extract Table from Governance Institute Ethics Index 2016 |
- The ethical score by broad sector is shown in the extract Table (above) demonstrating a high level of confidence in health and education while at the opposite end of the measurement, a very low confidence in the ethical behaviour of large corporations and the media.
- Within the key business sectors, real estate agents have the lowest ethical score with 1 in every 2 people stating that they are unethical. In contrast farmers and agricultural businesses are perceived as being the most ethical.
- Australians rate the ABC as the most ethical media platform.
- The banking, finance and insurance sector has the lowest ethics score amongst all sectors with a particular focus on executive salaries and bonuses, followed by bribery/corruption and poor treatment of customers.
- The top 5 ethical issues in business were rated as: corruption (69%), company tax avoidance (61%), misleading and deceptive advertising (59%), workplace bullying (50%) and discrimination and executive pay (both at 49%).
- n= 1,001
- Gender: 50% male and 50% female
- Work status: 15% were students, 59% working, 9% home duties, 9% retired, 6% not employed
- Location: 21% from Sydney, 19% from Melbourne, 10% from Brisbane, 8% from Perth, 6% from Adelaide with the rest from around Australia
- Age: mainly 22-35yrs: 22%, 36-45 yrs: 22%, 46-55 yrs: 22%, 56-65 yrs: 18%,
- Education: mainly trade certificate: 28%, Bachelor degree: 23% and Post graduate: 11%
- Household status: mainly single 35% couple with children: 25% couple without children: 25%
Saturday 16 July 2016
Should directors of boards own shares in their companies ?
Friday 3 June 2016
McKinsey Survey shows geostrategic risks are higher than ever
If Government thinks the private sector is ready to deal with a crisis, this report which covers global business should dispel any such illusion. McKinsey provides common -sense advice to assist executives to manage such events: identify the trends and disruptions that are specific to their organisations; assess the potential impact of risks across a range of scenarios; develop initiatives to mitigate the risks or capture opportunities; establish a decision-making process that prioritises initiatives. Seems like sound advice.
Saturday 23 May 2015
Participation in the Christian faith in the United States - trending downward
Pew Institute data 2015 |
Fully 36% of young Millenials (those between the ages of 18 and 24) are religiously unaffiliated and 34% of older Millenials (aged 25-33) likewise. There is also time-trend data indicating that people in older generations are increasingly disavowing association with organised Christian religion.
Studies such as these from the Pew Institute are massive in size (sample sizes are over 35,000) and complexity including multi-ethnic and multi-faith research work. The factors for this decline will be multifaceted including changing lifestyles, values and demographics, weak institutional leadership, various moral/ethical scandals in major Churches over the past decade and societal fragmentation in the digital world to cite a few. At a time of rising militancy in the Islamic faith, the correlating but unrelated decline in Christian support is not a positive development.