Specialty coffee has long been a favourite with a small number of Emiratis who have made regular visits for the past 30 years to a tiny coffee supplier in Bur Dubai.

Coffee Centre imports, roasts and grinds fresh coffee beans from exotic locales around the globe, primarily Brazil.

Bader Ahmad Hawshi, General Manager of the Coffee Centre situated on Mussallah Road, near Bank Street, said despite troubling times for the coffee industry, he is retaining loyal customers who prefer freshly roasted and ground coffee over store-bought instant coffee.

Inside the Coffee Centre premises, the earthy aroma beckons customers who want consistent quality long sought after by the Hawshi family.

But the latest doubling in prices within the last year is making it extremely difficult, he said, to offer customers quality coffee products for the same price.

"Coffee business is down all across the world because prices are too high," said Hawshi, who still harbours enough stock purchased earlier at lower prices to weather a couple more months of increasing bean prices.

Hawshi said he is awaiting fresh new crops in February from Brazil and is hoping that a strong yield of beans will provide enough supply so that demand and prices will drop before he orders anew at lower costs.

Two years ago, Hawshi could afford to order a ship container of beans from Brazil for about $25,000 (Dh91,825) but prices have risen to the point that he has postponed his next shipment.

"I had to cancel a container because I can't afford to pay $40,000," he said.

For now, Hawshi is still charging about Dh40 per kilogramme of roasted coffee, the same price as last year, as a strategic move to avoid losing customers.

It all comes down to long-term business strategy, he said.

"I lose money or I lose customers," he said. "The customers tell me this is my problem, not theirs. If I don't make up the difference, I will lose a lot of customers."

Thomas John, a salesman at Coffee Centre for the last three decades, said many of the families who bought coffee in the first year of business still buy regularly.

"We import from Brazil, Kenya, Malaysia and India. We get beans from all over the world," said John. Our biggest seller has always been our light-roasted arabica for locals. The coffee is from Brazil but it is lighter and has less caffeine than dark-roasted."

Light roasted beans, as the name would suggest, are cooked for less time, resulting in a light colour and a smoother, less bitter taste than dark roast, he said.

And although Yemen does grow a smaller annual crop, very little of the Yemeni coffee makes it way into the Coffee Centre floor, he said.

"It's very hard to find in the UAE. The production is not there," John said.

The arabica beans from Yemen, Macau, Ethiopia and Kenya sell in the neighbourhood of Dh90 per kilogramme compared to Dh40 for robusta varieties from Brazil, he said.

People will pay more for arabica beans because there is more taste for real coffee aficionados.

"The bean is the same but there is much more flavour in the arabica coffee bean," John said.

One of Coffee Centre's most loyal customers is Sudanese national Kamal Ali, a resident of Bur Dubai, who has visited the coffee storehouse every week, on average, for 10 years.

He doesn't mind digging deeper into his pockets for freshly ground coffee rather than buying instant varieties.

"I like the Turkish coffee here, it is very good. All Sudanese like their Turkish coffee," he said, seated behind the counter as John prepared Ali's latest order of five travel packs to take back to his home country.

"I have always bought my coffee here because they use fresh new beans. For me, the supermarket coffee [bottled or tinned instant coffee] doesn't taste the same," Ali said.