For years, coffee’s giants have been cast as villains. Their dominance, critics argue, squeezes farmers, depresses quality, and cheapens a product whose cultural cachet has soared in the past two decades. Producer countries’ share of commercial retail coffee prices has barely budged in the last 20 years, even with prices declining. Meanwhile at the upper end of the specialty market, prices rose by more than 75% – to whose benefit? Big roasters often run on thin margins balanced by scal...| Coffee Intelligence
On September 5th President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order updating tariff rules in line with ongoing trade negotiations. It designates coffee as an “unavailable natural resource,” eligible for exemption but only through future trade deals. 50% tariffs on Brazilian coffee have already shaken America’s market, and appear to be staying put. Brazil supplies 8M bags of coffee annually to the US, but roasters and traders are quickly pivoting to alternatives.| Coffee Intelligence
Many of the world’s coffee traders are now running on fumes. After a decade of relatively benign markets, the past five years have been a blur of price shocks, shipping snarls, rising labour costs, and now the extra burden of US tariffs. Smaller exporters and cooperatives face the sharpest strain, raising the question of who survives and how.| Coffee Intelligence
