Vast swathes of coffee-growing territory in Central and South America may become too hot for the comfort of coffee trees in coming decades, thanks to global warming, says Eater, warning “coffee is under threat.” It cites an estimate by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture that 80 percent of land devoted to Arabica coffee in Brazil and Central America will be unsuitable for the crop by 2050.
“The market has been bracing for a global coffee shortage for some time now, with some studies finding that coffee production may eventually need to move to parts of Asia and eastern Africa,” says Eater. Brazil is by far the largest coffee producer in the world, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia and Columbia, says Statistica. Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries with the coffee belt circling the earth around the equator.