Coffee prices just hit a historic high—again—as tariffs, trade tensions, and erratic weather send the market into turmoil. Plus, deforestation harms coffee production in Brazil, and Starbucks Workers United may be going on strike.
‘Coffee Prices Top Record As Trade And Supply Concerns Mount’ – via Bloomberg
On October 23, coffee’s commodity price reached $4.35 per pound, a record high. This comes six months after the C price peaked at $4.29 per pound in February, breaking the previous record that had stood since 1977.
Coffee prices are spiking for a lot of reasons, reports Pratik Parija and Ilena Peng for Bloomberg. Weather conditions in Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, continue to threaten supply, and warehoused coffee reserves are low. Sam Klein from Partners Coffee told Bloomberg that many buyers are holding off on contracting coffee due to the volatility, which means available inventory at these warehouses is in “super high demand,” he said.
Another contributing factor is the ever-changing tariff situation. President Donald Trump has imposed at least a 10% tariff on imports from nearly every United States trading partner. Goods from Brazil, the largest supplier of coffee to the U.S., face a 50% tariff. Lawmakers and industry actors have lobbied for a coffee-specific exemption.
Last week, Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Colombia—the second-largest source of coffee to the U.S.—due to an ongoing feud with Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro. The two have clashed over U.S. military strikes on fishing vessels in international waters. Although the U.S. justified the strikes as part of an anti-drug smuggling operation, experts said they are illegal under international law, while United Nations experts called them “extrajudicial executions.”
Also last week, the U.S. said it is considering tariffs of up to 100% on imports from Nicaragua. The reason for this is a report from the U.S. Trade Representative, which alleged “increasingly pervasive abuses of labor rights, as well as human rights and fundamental freedoms” in the country. As Nick Brown reports for Daily Coffee News, the U.S. is the largest importer of Nicaraguan coffee, accounting for about half the country’s total exports.
Adding to all this is the fact that the European Commission last week backtracked on its plans to delay implementation of the deforestation regulation known as the EUDR. At the same time, the Commission eased reporting requirements to make compliance simpler for small companies.
In September, legislators mulled giving companies another year to prepare for the law, which aims to reduce deforestation-linked imports of products like coffee. However, they decided to move forward with their proposed deadlines. The legislation will take effect for large companies on December 30 of this year, and the same time next year for smaller companies.
Read more from Bloomberg about why coffee prices keep skyrocketing here or via NDTV here.
‘Deforestation Is Imperiling Coffee Cultivation, Report Finds’ – via the New York Times
Deforestation still plagues the coffee industry, despite growing interest in sustainability and agroforestry. A new report from the nonprofit Coffee Watch, published last week, mapped two decades’ worth of forest loss in one of Brazil’s key coffee-growing regions.
From 2001 to 2023, more than 11 million hectares of forest were cleared in the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest, the report found. More than 700,000 hectares of deforested land were on coffee farms, and 300,000 hectares were explicitly cleared for coffee cultivation. “While not all nearby forest loss is directly caused by coffee, the spatial pattern is clear: where coffee spreads, forests retreat,” the report’s authors write.
Coffee Watch linked deforestation to worsening climate impacts in Brazil, including reduced rainfall and crop failures. Since 2014, the authors wrote, “8 of the last 10 years have seen rainfall deficits in major coffee zones — a sharp shift from prior decades.” Soil moisture was also depleted across the areas measured, causing plants to struggle and produce less. Over the last decade, “Brazil’s major coffee-producing regions have faced a rising frequency of severe droughts,” the report states.
“The ecologically destructive way we grow coffee is going to result in us not having coffee,” Coffee Watch’s director Etelle Higonnet told Ephrat Livni of the New York Times.
Livni points out that a recent Brazilian study reached a similar conclusion, connecting deforestation in the Amazon rainforest to reduced rainfall in the region.
Coffee Watch advocates for actors in Brazil to adopt large-scale agroforestry practices. While less than 1% of Brazil’s central coffee-growing regions currently use agroforestry practices, which integrate trees into farms to provide shade and enhance benefits such as regulating temperatures and fostering biodiversity. The report found that doing so provides “a natural shield against nearly every climate and ecological stressor” mentioned in it.
Investing in agroforestry, the report concluded, “isn’t just an ecological opportunity — it’s now a business imperative. Coffee can no longer afford to chase short-term yields at long-term cost. Forests and trees must be reintegrated into the production model — not as a niche add-on, but as a core operating principle.”
Read more on how coffee cultivation is driving deforestation here.
More News
‘Australia’s Jack Simpson Wins The 2025 World Barista Championship’ – via Sprudge
‘AI Voice Ordering, New Menu Items Teased by Starbucks CEO As Possible Changes’ – via USA Today
‘Regenerative Coffee Sales Nearly Triple in UK’s Fast-Growing $4.8 Billion Market’ – via Global Coffee Report
‘Roast Magazine Announces 2026 Roaster of the Year Winners’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘World Of Coffee & The World Brewers Cup Head To Bogotá In 2027’ – via Sprudge
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
Starbucks Workers United (SBWU) has yet to agree on a first contract with the coffee giant. Now, the union is voting on whether to take more extreme action and go on strike.
As Kate Rogers reports for CNBC, the two sides “are not in active negotiations to reach a contract after talks between them fell apart in December of 2024.” Unionized workers held a series of practice pickets over the last two months, and will conduct 70 rallies and pickets across 60 cities over the next couple of weeks as voting for a wider strike takes place.
“We’re going to do whatever it takes to secure this contract,” barista and organizer Jasmine Leli told CNBC. The union is pushing for better pay and staffing, as well as a resolution on outstanding unfair labor practices charges filed against the company since the first store unionized in 2021. Rogers writes that it would cost Starbucks “less than one average days’ sales to settle the contract.”.
In a statement, Starbucks noted that “Workers United only represents around 4% of our partners but chose to walk away from the bargaining table. If they’re ready to come back, we’re ready to talk.”
Also last week, SBWU filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee, opposing Starbucks’ role as the “official coffee partner” of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. In its complaint, the union says that the company’s treatment of workers in the U.S. and abroad conflicts with the Olympic Games’ code of ethics.
“Starbucks’ long pattern of disrespecting workers’ rights stands in stark contrast to the Olympic spirit, which celebrates human dignity, fairness, solidarity, and teamwork,” SBWU spokesperson Michelle Eisen said. “Until Starbucks starts playing fair … they have no place at the Olympic Games.”
Starbucks denies the allegations. As part of its agreement with the Olympics, the company will build a one-off coffee shop in the Olympic and Paralympic villages and serve coffee throughout the games’ venues.
Beyond the Headlines
‘Why Are Queer People So Drawn to the Coffee Industry?’ by Jill Webb
‘Lessons From Coffee’s Forgotten Foe’ by Fionn Pooler
‘Why Are AI Companies Suddenly Opening Up Coffee Shops?’ by Zara Stone
