If you are an investor holding on to assets that perform like the chart above, you might be having fun in this bull run. If you are a coffee trader or exporter, you might be feeling dizzy and the world is crashing down on you. The skyrocketing coffee futures became headline news as it reached an all time high of 440.85cents/lb in February of 2025.
What does it mean to coffee roasters all over the world and how does this impact consumers? Since 2022, Nylon signed up to the Transparency Pledge to publish the prices we pay for the green coffees we buy every year. The C market is not something we overly focused on as since day one, we have always worked with paying at a price given to us by the producers/exporters and we do not bargain/negotiate on price. We work on trust and relationship. However, we have seen and heard how this rising C market has impacted coffee traders as producers default on contracts to deliver coffees to sell in the spot market as prices are much higher than contracted price. This behaviour led to coffee traders failing to honour their obligations, with some holding back on purchases as they are unable to get the financing to buy the usual volumes at such high C market prices. The chaos led to uncertainty in the global supply chain and it leaves many question marks how it will impact roasters and consumers. 
In a recent article published on the New York Times, our friends, Marysabel Caballero and Moises Herrera of El Puente in Honduras, were interviewed about how the coffee prices are affecting them. To them, they face greater challenges that are not pacified by the rising coffee prices. Climate change is a threat to the long term survival of coffee producers all over the world. It is perhaps timely for the world to recognise that if we want producers to continue their trade, the exporters, roasters and consumers have to bear the rising risks/costs of coffee production.Â
2024 Price Transparency Highlights:
- Average Price per Pound: We paid an average price of $5.26 per pound for the green coffee beans purchased in 2024 (compared to $6.04 per pound in 2023). The drop is due to less purchases of the high end coffees (<USD$15/lb) and a delayed shipment from Colombia that did not arrive in time for our report.
According to the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide 2024, the median price for lots of 1,000 pounds or less that cup at or above 84 points was $5.00 per pound in 2023/24. Comparing to this median price, the prices we pay are in line with the industry.Â
The Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide is a collaborative initiative by a dedicated team from the Emory University's Goizueta Business School along with more than 100 coffee companies and organizations that generates relevant pricing benchmarks for differentiated coffees. The guide is an aggregated dataset that provides context for coffee price negotiations based on quality scores, volumes purchased, and country of origin from more than 100 coffee companies and organizations that donate information from tens of thousands of coffee contracts.
- Price Range:Â The prices we paid varied depending on the origin, quality, and specific agreements with the producers. Prices ranged from US$3.20 to US$15 per pound.
- Long Term Partnerships:Â We continue to strengthen our long term partnerships with producers to have a greater impact to those involved in the supply chain.
For Nylon, it is important for producers to sell at a price which covers their costs, their risks and earn a profit for a sustainable livelihood to improve their quality of life. Research has shown that producers have to evolve from the traditional practices of coffee farming to deal with the changing climate. They need to enrich the depleted soil nutrition, plant shade trees to combat rising temperatures, reuse coffee waste products into organic fertilizers and maintain the harmony of nature and commercial agriculture. Easier said than done as producers need support to embark in changes. Such investment takes time and also risks. Nylon is all in to support our partners if they are committed to this cause, we hope you can join us by continuing to drink Nylon.
Thank you for reading.