Coffee prices were finally starting to fall. Global geopolitics changed that. Plus, rumor has it that Starbucks may be saying goodbye to Seattle, and moderate coffee-drinking could lower your dementia risk.
‘Abundant Coffee Crops; Consumers Wobbles and the Iran Conflict: Another Shake-Up for Coffee Prices?’ – via Beverage Daily
Coffee prices have always been volatile, but that volatility has been turbocharged over the past few years. The arabica futures market, also known as the C price, hit record highs last year, and for most of 2025, coffee prices were well above $3 per pound.
But finally, the C price had been trending downward in recent months, due in part to the Supreme Court nixing President Trump’s tariffs and predictions of improved harvests in Brazil and Vietnam.
However, the C price rose again this month, climbing nearly 10% over the past week to close above $3 on March 20. Why are prices going back up?
It could be due to supply chain disruptions caused by the US and Israel’s airstrikes on Iran. In response, Iran launched strikes of its own and began blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping corridor.
“The Iran conflict might have a short term impact on Asian supplies, both from a logistics perspective due to rising shipping and transport costs and longer journey times, for example, as well as potentially higher fuel costs for Asian coffee growers,” Stephen Butler of commodities forecasting company ChAI told Rachel Arthur of Beverage Daily.
Retail prices are also trending upward. Ilena Peng reports for Bloomberg that the average consumer price for roasted coffee hit a new record in February, reaching $9.46 per pound. Katie Carguilo from Counter Culture Coffee told Peng that falling C-market prices would take months to filter down to roasters, who often lock in green coffee prices far in advance.
It’s not just roasted coffee: According to data from the restaurant payment provider Toast, Peng reports, the median price of cold brew and drip coffee rose 4% in February over the same month last year. In response, consumers are cutting back: a January National Coffee Association survey found that 61% of respondents had reduced their coffee spending, Marcelo Teixeira reports for Reuters.
What happens next is hard to say. However, some analysts told Reuters that they still expect the C price, which topped out at over $4 per pound in 2025, to fall to $2 or below by the end of this year as supply increases.
Read the full story on coffee’s continued volatility here.
‘Is Starbucks Moving Its Headquarters To Nashville?’ – via Sprudge
At this point, Starbucks is basically synonymous with Seattle. The company was founded there in 1971, employs thousands of corporate employees in a building known as the Starbucks Center, and has partnered with many Seattle institutions, community groups, and sports teams (although maybe don’t mention former CEO Howard Schultz’s name to any Seattle SuperSonics fans).
However, if media reports are to be believed, the coffee giant might be looking to move its HQ across the country.
According to the real estate publication CoStar, Starbucks has reportedly been scouting large office spaces in Nashville. The outlet reported that Starbucks has been working with the real estate firm CBRE to locate a building with 250,000 square feet of office space in Nashville, enough for upwards of 2,000 employees.
Starbucks has denied rumors that it is planning to move its headquarters.
In 2025, Starbucks laid off more than 1,000 corporate workers across two rounds as it sought to cut costs amid CEO Brian Niccol’s “Back to Starbucks” plan. Earlier in March, the company announced it would be moving some of its logistics operations to Tennessee. At the time, Starbucks spokesperson Lori Torgerson told the Seattle Times that “Seattle remains our North America and Global Support HQ.”
The potential move could be related to Washington state’s recent “millionaires’ tax” on high earners, according to additional reporting from Paul Roberts for the Seattle Times. The tax, a 9.9% levy on incomes above $1 million that will impact just 20,000 households in the state, has drawn opposition from some of the state’s wealthy residents. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he’d be moving to Miami days before the tax passed.
Tennessee has no income tax, low business taxes, and a steadily growing population. In his reporting, Roberts notes that “Metropolitan Nashville and the rest of Davidson County have been aggressively recruiting employers.” In a statement on Starbucks’ logistics office opening, Governor Bill Lee said that the state’s “strong values and fiscally-conservative approach are good for business.”
Read the full story on Starbucks’ possible headquarters move here.
More News
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‘Canada Latest Chapter to Join International Women’s Coffee Alliance’ – via Global Coffee Report
‘The Legendary Coffee Exchange By Cafe Imports Comes To World Of Coffee San Diego’ – via Sprudge
‘Costa Rica’s Head Start May Mask Tougher EUDR Road Ahead’ – via Mongabay
‘Coffee Byproducts Could Reduce Plastic in ‘Plastic Wrap’’ – via Daily Coffee News
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
Starbucks Workers United is trying to get contract negotiations with the company back on track. It’s been a year since either party has sat down to negotiate, but in February, the union claims it sent Starbucks a comprehensive proposed contract, which the company has yet to respond to.
The revised proposal includes a lower starting wage of $17 an hour—down from the previous $20 demand, but still higher than Starbucks’ average starting wage. It also includes 4% annual raises, protections for unionized baristas, better staffing, and resolution of hundreds of outstanding unfair labor practices.
“Baristas recently met, deliberated, and found consensus around fair and reasonable measures to support baristas,” said Jasmine Leli, a Starbucks barista and bargaining delegate. Additionally, Leli said, workers are “in conversation with the company about the road back to the bargaining table.” Starbucks told CNBC that it has “proposed to resume in-person bargaining with Workers United on March 30 and to remain available for continued negotiations throughout April.”
The two sides had been in negotiations for more than a year when talks broke down in January 2025. Both sides blamed each other: SBWU said the company’s pay and economic proposals were “almost laughable,” while Starbucks called the union’s wage demands “not sustainable.” Since then, unionized workers have staged a series of strikes to urge the company to return to negotiations.
Is Coffee Good For You?
A new study has found that moderate coffee or tea consumption is significantly associated with reduced dementia risk.
Researchers at Harvard, MIT, and Mass General Brigham tracked more than 130,000 participants over 43 years to investigate how coffee and tea might impact dementia risk.
“When searching for possible dementia prevention tools, we thought something as prevalent as coffee may be a promising dietary intervention—and our unique access to high quality data through studies that have been going on for more than 40 years allowed us to follow through on that idea,” senior author Daniel Wang said in a press release.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that those who consumed a moderate amount of caffeinated coffee (2-3 cups per day) had an 18% lower risk of developing dementia compared to those who rarely or never drank it.
Moderate coffee drinkers also showed lower rates of subjective cognitive decline and performed better on certain cognitive tests. Tea drinkers had similar outcomes, although decaf drinkers did not. The researchers also looked at those with a genetic predisposition towards dementia, and found that they benefited from drinking coffee.
As with all such studies, the researchers advised caution. “While our results are encouraging, it’s important to remember that the effect size is small and there are lots of important ways to protect cognitive function as we age,” Wang said. “Our study suggests that caffeinated coffee or tea consumption can be one piece of that puzzle.”
Beyond the Headlines
‘The Secret Of Turkish Coffee? Since The 16th Century, It’s In The Water’ by Duygu Kurtuluş
‘How Mozambique Used Coffee To Reclaim the Deforested Gorongosa National Park’ by Daniel Muraga
