In March, we will be increasing the price of our coffee. As a valued customer, we want to take a moment to explain what’s happening in the global coffee market, and why it’s affecting the cost of our coffee.
Coffee prices have just reached a decade-long high. Climate change is causing more extreme weather events, making coffee production increasingly unpredictable. Last year, severe frost in Brazil damaged around half a million acres of coffee crops. Previously hit by serious drought, Brazil – the world’s largest coffee producer – experienced a very disappointing harvest.
Are price increases good for farmers?
Maybe in the short term. However, sudden price spikes create uncertainty in the market. Higher prices encourage more farmers to plant coffee, which can then lead to oversupply. With our 20+ years of experience in coffee, we’ve seen this price cycle before: after a peak, prices often fall back to unsustainably low levels.
Unstable market dynamics create major challenges for farmers in coffee-producing regions and affect the availability of coffee here in the Netherlands.
Despite this, we remain focused on providing high-quality coffee and paying our farmers strong prices for their work — in 2021, this was on average 49% above the Fairtrade minimum.
Source: International Coffee Organization (ICO)
Click here to read more about the True Price of Coffee
