The Future Price of Coffee

Recent years have seen a spike in the retail price for coffee paid by consumers in their local stores and cafes. But, despite that, the price farmers get paid for coffee hasn’t meaningfully changed in four decades.

Coffee farmers are at the whim of a complex global commodities exchange that leaves them powerless to set their own prices and subject to massive instability from season to season. In many countries, the price for a pound of coffee falls well under the cost to produce that coffee, leaving farmers at a loss financially, dependent on predatory bank loans and uncertain about the future.

We untangle the complicated history of coffee pricing, how we got here, what’s the cost of doing nothing, and what it looks like to remake the global coffee pricing model from the ground up. Millions of coffee farmers and their communities depend on us getting this right, and we’re going to explore how.

Featuring:

• Camilo Enciso Suarez, Director, ASOPEP Farmers Cooperative
• Chad Trewick, consultant at Reciprocafé, Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide
• Grayson Caldwell, Senior Sustainability Director, Bellwether Coffee