Almost all of our Indonesian and African coffee gets here on a container ship going through the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal.
The Houthi Rebels based out of Yemen have been attacking vessels in the Red Sea. The UK and USA have been patrolling the waters trying to protect the ships, but last week, a container ship with 50,000 pounds of fertilizer among other things got shot at and sank, which is both an environmental tragedy from the pollution of the fertilizer to the coral reefs, but also a multi million dollar waste of infrastructure and goods, but also an event that has stopped almost all shipping through the Red Sea at this moment.
Ethiopia -- which allegedly has had a banner year of coffee -- has banned all shipments.
Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania -- most of them ship via Ethiopia. All on pause.
Indonesia can ship to California and then ship the coffee via train to the East Coast, but that takes longer.
Africa can ship by going south of Africa around Cape Horn, but it adds a million dollars of fuel costs plus hazard pay and increased insurance and takes 3-4 weeks longer and is only an option a few months of the year.
Anyway, this is why fresh coffees are so late this year and are continuing to be late. The world's shipping canal is being held hostage and everything is on hold.
Just remember when you drink your coffee. Someone in a foreign country lovingly and passionately grew it. Picked it. Sorted it. Processed it. An exporter got it out of the country. A ship crew got it to the USA. A lawyer got it through customs. We loved it and bought it and carefully roasted it.
Rebels tried to sink it before it got to you, but there are ways around it. In the meantime, Colombian coffees have been so good this year......