Rising Coffee Prices in 2024 and 2025: What’s Happening, Why It Matters, and How We’re Navigating It Together
Why Are Coffee Prices Rising?
The futures price for green (unroasted) coffee reached all-time highs earlier this year on the C-Market, pushing the price for commodity coffee from $1.58 lb to over $4.20 in less than 2 years. Several factors are driving the rise in coffee prices, and understanding these will help explain how it impacts the coffee you’re drinking every day.
1. Increased Demand
Since 2021, global coffee consumption has outpaced production, creating an ongoing supply deficit. A number of factors contribute to this imbalance including a significant increase in demand in emerging markets, particularly China. As more people in these regions embrace coffee culture, demand has surged, putting pressure on global supply.
2. Low Coffee Prices and Shrinking Plantations
For decades, coffee prices at the farm level were kept low, which meant that farmers weren’t able to sustain their farms and invest in the future of coffee production. Many producers have left the industry or reduced their plantings. The result is a smaller supply of high-quality beans, and as demand grows, the prices for these beans are rising.
3. The Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change has taken a heavy toll on coffee-growing regions around the world. Rising temperatures, droughts, frosts, and unpredictable weather patterns have made it increasingly difficult for farmers to maintain healthy, high-yielding coffee crops. Increasingly, areas that were well suited for growing coffee are no longer able to reliably produce sustainable crops.
4. Speculation and Volatility in the C-Market
The C-Market, which serves as the global benchmark for coffee pricing, has seen significant volatility in recent months. In addition to all the factors listed above, tariffs have further contributed to the market forces driving prices to all-time highs by creating uncertainty. The price of coffee futures has reached levels not seen in over a decade, which affects everyone in the coffee supply chain—from farmers and exporters to roasters like us. While we work to minimize the impact on you, these market shifts are unavoidable.
How This Affects You and What We’re Doing to Navigate Rising Coffee Prices.
Since our founding, we have strived to provide you with the best coffee at fair prices. With the rising cost of coffee beans, it’s impossible for us to completely absorb these price increases without adjusting our pricing to reflect the market changes. While we understand this may be concerning, we want you to know that we're doing everything we can to maintain the quality and value you’ve come to expect from us. Unlike some specialty roasters in the market, we refuse to compromise on quality-whether in our single-farm offerings, regional selections, or the carefully curated components of our blends.
1. Sourcing with Integrity
As coffee prices rise, we're doubling down on our commitment to quality and fairness throughout the supply chain. We’ve always paid significantly more than Fair Trade standards and well above the C-Market, but today’s market dynamics demand even greater investment. To meet this challenge, we’re strengthening our direct relationships with farmers and partnering with transparent, like-minded importers. By working closely with producers, we ensure they’re paid fairly—empowering them to reinvest in their farms and secure their livelihoods. This not only supports long-term sustainability but also helps stabilize prices for both producers and customers. Ultimately, this approach allows us to continue offering the exceptional coffee you love while maintaining a resilient, ethical supply chain.
2. Transparency
We believe that transparency is key in times like these. We want you to understand the factors at play in the coffee market, and how they affect pricing. By keeping you informed, we aim to foster trust and ensure you feel confident in the coffee you’re buying from us. In the next few weeks we will release our first annual coffee transparency report. We hope to be an industry-leading example of straightforward, honest reporting that can help to move our industry in a more sustainable direction
4. Innovating and Offering Value-Added Products
Rising costs don’t just mean adjusting prices—they also mean finding creative ways to improve systems and add value for you, our customers. Whether it’s through special blends, limited-edition offerings, or unique single-origin coffees, we're constantly working to bring you new and exciting coffee experiences. Our goal is to continue offering you the best value, even when the market is unpredictable. We will never be the cheapest option in the market but we will also be far from the most expensive all while, in our opinion, offering world class quality and service.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Coffee
The upside? When farmers receive higher prices, they're better able to invest in their farms—planting more coffee, improving processing techniques, and building toward a more sustainable future. These investments can lead to greater supply and, over time, help stabilize pricing. Better processing also opens the door to more innovation and even higher quality, which means more exceptional coffees for you to enjoy. We believe great coffee is an investment—in the craft of the farmer and in the experience you savor with every cup.
With much hope and appreciation,
Charles Bova
Director of Wholesale, Boxcar Coffee
