A message from our Head of Coffee, Andrea:
The C Price is Rising
A milestone was passed last week in the New York 'C' market, the portion of the stock exchange that controls the commercial price of coffee, as it hit a 40-year high during yesterday's trading. The current high ‘C’ price is caused by a variety of factors, including a predicted global shortage of coffee in 2025, as well as market speculation caused by non-coffee actors. While this most recent peak is certainly noteworthy, the market has been steadily rising throughout 2024.
What does this mean for coffee farmers?
This week’s news, while unprecedented, is not all doom and gloom. It is certainly good news for coffee farmers, who are able to recoup some profits after many years of low prices which were below most producer's cost of production. For many farmers, especially smallholders, periods of high prices are still too few and far between and are unpredictable as a result of the ‘C’ market, meaning long-term investment in their farms is near-impossible. Additionally, challenges such as climate change and rural-to-urban migration have put enormous pressure on farmers in recent years, and it will take more than a few months of high prices to fix these intractable issues.
What does this mean for Caravan?
So, what does this mean for us, as a specialty coffee roaster, and what will this mean for our own customers who rely on serving a great cup of coffee with their own bills to pay?
At Caravan, we buy coffee through our network of trusted, long-term partners. This is a strategy which aligns with our ethics as a company and provides stability and transparency as we remain in constant communication with our farmer and importer relationships. Though the prices we pay for coffee are rising this year, we are able to ensure that this extra money is making it into farmer’s pockets, and that the coffee we receive maintains the same level of quality and continues to follow our sustainable sourcing guidelines.
What might this mean for you?
While we remain committed to providing a fair price to our customers for a great quality product, there will be a necessity for some of these costs to be distributed along the entire supply chain, including to end consumers. Asking everyone to pay their fair share – from importers to roasters to flat white-loving customers – will allow us to continue supporting farmers for years to come. Rest assured that we will not pass on more than we have to, and we’ll be here to answer any questions you may have and provide advice on how to prepare your own business for rising coffee prices.
Our coffee team are in close contact with our importer and producer partners around the globe in order to weather this storm. We stand firmly behind coffee farmers making a living wage and we hope this period of higher returns will allow many to reinvest into their farms to give the coffee industry a greater opportunity to flourish in future years. We appreciate your continued support of our work at Caravan and especially of the farmers we source from around the world.
We are always here for any of questions, just drop us a line, and thanks for reading.
