Let's talk coffee prices...

You may have noticed a slight increase in the cost of your daily brew, whether that be at your local coffee shop, or the bags of beans you buy at home. We're here to demystify things, so let's talk about it!

So you may have heard some commotion in the coffee industry about prices lately. Terms like C-market, green prices, commodity vs. specialty… But what does it all mean? And how does it affect your morning brew?

Don’t worry, we’re here to give you the run-down.

Commodity Coffee Prices

Most coffee is traded as a commodity on the C-market, meaning the price is set by the ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) and is driven by supply and demand. This price is the base price for commodity grade coffee (ie. non-specialty coffee), meaning it’s the minimum prices farmers can expect to receive.

In the past couple of years, droughts and poor weather conditions in Brazil and Vietnam, the two largest producers of coffee in the world, have resulted in lower crop yields. We’re no economists, but we know that…

More demand + less supply = Higher prices

This price, measured in US dollars per pound, has floated between the $1-$2/lb marks for decades, with the last record high in 1977. Unfortunately, at times, farmers were not being paid enough to survive, with lows of less than $1/lb. In November last year, the C-market price surpassed $3/lb for the first time in decades, then went on to surpass $4/lb in February of this year.

To summarise, the price of green coffee has increased by around 60% in the last six months. This is, in theory, great news for coffee farmers, provided they actually see the results of this increase.

But wait, what has that got to do with specialty coffee?

As you know, here at Press, we source and roast high quality, traceable, specialty grade coffee. This means that we pay above market price and do our best to ensure that for every coffee we source, farmers are being paid fairly. So as the price of commodity coffee goes up, so does the prices of specialty coffee; after all, if the farmers can get more money for lower-grade coffee, why would they put the time, effort, and resources into producing the high quality coffee we all love?

What else…

There are other factors at play of course, like making sure our staff are being paid well (we always pay London Living Wage or higher), increased operating costs and, everyone’s favourite word, ✨inflation✨.

So, after careful consideration, our prices will be increasing slightly so we can continue meet our margins. We believe in making good coffee as accessible as possible to our customers, whilst doing our best to ensure everyone along the supply chain is making a fair wage. We know that our customers, like us, believe in high quality & ethically sourced coffee & that our product is worth paying a little more for.

Thanks for reading, and always feel free to shoot any questions over to us on Instagram!

Much love,

The Press Coffee Team