The global coffee industry is facing one of its most volatile periods in recent history.
Coffee prices are rising, and it’s affecting everyone – from café owners to daily coffee drinkers. The ‘C-price,’ which sets the global coffee market rate, changes due to things like weather and economic shifts.
Right now, those changes are bigger than ever. Understanding why helps us appreciate the challenges roasters, cafés, and coffee lovers are facing.
What’s going on with the C-Price at the moment?
At the end of 2024, we published an update on the state of the C-price, highlighting steady increases in the past five years. At the time of writing, the price was 326c per pound. Since then, it has surged past 400c per pound – a significant jump (and record high) – and at the time of writing, sits at 373c. This puts pressure on every stage of the supply chain, from farmers at origin to the final cup.
Why is coffee getting more expensive? A mix of challenges is driving up coffee prices at origin:
Supply chain struggles
Climate issues, shipping delays, and global tensions are making coffee harder to move.
Extreme weather
Frosts in Brazil, erratic rain in Colombia, and droughts in key regions mean lower yields.
Rising production costs
Fertiliser, labour, and transport are all getting more expensive.
Market speculation
Investors betting on shortages are pushing prices even higher.
Tough harvests back-to-back
Poor seasons in Brazil (2021), Colombia (2021), and Vietnam (2024) have all added to the squeeze.
The result? A tighter supply and higher costs across the board. And like all businesses, we’re experiencing the same increased cost pressures locally through utilities, freight and cost of goods.
Our stance
We’re committed to paying fair prices to producers, ensuring their livelihoods remain secure while maintaining the high-quality coffee offering coffee drinkers expect.
However, the current price increases are making it difficult to absorb costs without affecting the sustainability of our business, our café partners and the industry as a whole.
What we’re doing
We’re not just responding to change – we’re having the tricky conversations around what it takes to build a sustainable, resilient coffee industry.
We know there’s never a good time for price increases; running a café is already a tough enough, and the last thing café operators need is more pressure. So we’re doing everything we can to help cafés navigate these challenges with transparency, support, and practical solutions.
Here’s what we’re doing to back our partners:
Helping have the tough conversations
We get that pricing shifts are hard to communicate. That’s why we’re sharing insights, tools, and data to help cafés explain changes to customers with confidence.Setting the pace on pricing
We’re adjusting our own café pricing first, setting a clear benchmark to follow. By leading the way, we’re helping to normalise necessary price increases while keeping customer trust intact.
Keeping the conversation open
We’re here to talk. Whether through regular updates or direct conversations, we’ll make sure coffee drinkers are across industry changes and what it means for their favourite café.
Backing cafés with quality and support
Now more than ever, quality is vital for a café's success. We‘re investing in our café partners with classroom, onsite and digital barista training, technical services and business support.
We understand that price increases aren’t easy, but maintaining quality and delivering on our flavour promise is non-negotiable.
Final thoughts
The sustainability of the coffee industry, from farm to café, requires a new approach to pricing.
Rising costs affect almost everything – rent, utilities, petrol, and food prices. Every year, we adjust, making choices based on our values and where we want to spend our money. For a long time, coffee has sat outside this upward trend. As such, causes a huge stir when prices can no longer be absorbed by producers, roasters and cafés.
If we want to keep up our favourite morning ritual, we need to put coffee in the same basket as everything else; something worth spending money on.
