Quick Take — Nestlé: a 2 per cent increase in sales volumes had been forecast, but growth was only 1.8 per cent and the share price plummeted by 7 per cent

Profit margins have been squeezed by high coffee and cocoa prices. Shares in the KitKat manufacturer plummeted by nearly 7 per cent on Thursday after the company said it expected an operating profit margin “broadly similar” in the second half of the year compared with the first, following earlier forecasts of higher margins.

The company’s operating profit margin fell by 0.1 percentage points year-on-year, standing at 16.4% in the first half of the year…

Operating profit fell by 2.8% to 7.1 billion Swiss francs ($8.7 billion). Nestlé stated that its operating margin was also affected by increased marketing expenditure, customs duties and the global recall of infant formula earlier this year

In an attempt to emerge from a prolonged crisis, the company recently announced that it had sold 50 per cent of its water business to the Platinum Equity fund.

Quick Take — Heatwaves: sales at risk

In France, sales of barbecue products have fallen – by 30 per cent – with even minced meat (viande hachée) down by 10 per cent, alongside chocolate, sugar, stock, tea, sausages, fresh pizzas, coffee and spreads.

Uniqlo – a Japanese clothing group with a presence in various countries around the world – has stated that it has had to close some of its shops due to the extreme heat.

It would be interesting to have reports and data for our country.

Quick Take — Andrea Illy: the disappearance of 50 per cent coffee lands is an increasingly concrete prospect

“Experts already said ten years ago that 50 per cent of the world’s coffee-growing land would be gone, due to climate change, and today this prospect is increasingly real.

Andrea Illy, president of illycaffè, thus recalled a prediction made over a decade ago during an interview in Rome at the headquarters of the Foreign Press Association in Italy, conducted by Bernard Bedarida in front of an audience of correspondents from international newspapers.

For Illy, the climate issue is no longer a distant scenario, but a factor that directly affects the future availability of coffee.

Quick Take — Coffee producing countries are getting too hot to grow beans, according to an analysis

Five countries responsible for 75 per cent of the world’s coffee supply record an average of 57 extra days of coffee-damaging heat per year…

The plants, particularly the most valuable Arabica variety, suffer from temperatures above 30°C…

The worst affected coffee producing country was El Salvador, which recorded 99 extra days of plant-damaging heat. Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, accounting for 37% of global production, recorded 70 additional days [days added, in dark red below in The Guardian table] with temperatures above 30°C. Ethiopia, which accounts for 6.4 per cent of coffee production, recorded 34… and there small farmers produce 60 per cent to 80 per cent of their coffee, but received only 0.36 per cent of the funds needed to adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis.