New Prices in 2025

Due to massively increasing raw coffee prices, we are increasing our retail prices by four percent on average effective January 14, 2025. A PDF including all new prices is attached. Orders up to January 15 will be charged old prices.

We wanted to execute this price increase at the beginning of the year to match the rising financial requirements and continue limiting the price of roasted coffee to less than 10 euros. Generally, we strive to increase prices as infrequently and moderately as possible to provide reliability and keep solidarily traded coffee affordable for low-income people.

We hope this price rise will last until June 2025 and no further increases will be necessary. Whether we can meet this target depends on production costs and the development of exchange rates. However, we remain optimistic.

Price development on the world coffee market and solidary trade

Recently, coffee prices have risen substantially worldwide. The reasons are poor harvests, a direct consequence of climate change, and stock market speculation. In general, well-paid raw coffee is a good thing, as coffee provides a livelihood for 100 million people worldwide. However, market mechanisms, crises, and exchange rate fluctuations create insecurities rather than planning reliability and reliable income. Small-scale farmers don't benefit from world market fluctuations, and profits are reaped by investors who are betting on future prices.

Coffee trade stakeholders with sufficient capital are exploiting these developments. Thus, they create speculation bubbles disconnected from producers' realities, which are consequently replaced by low-price periods that are no longer sustainable for small-scale farmers.

Through our solidary trade concept, we aim to break this vicious circle and pay higher raw coffee prices even during low-price periods. Simultaneously, this implies going along with very high coffee prices as far as possible to empower cooperatives in production countries. Otherwise, they will suffer economic imbalances if they cannot fulfil their contracts due to big corporations scooping the local coffee market.

In 2025, we will import more than 3000 sacks of raw coffee worth ca. 1,5 million euros from seven small-scale farmers' coops in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia. To facilitate the coops' purchase of raw coffee from their members, we are pre-financing 933 000 Euro free of interest up to six months before import.

The current moderate price rise is supposed to create a sound base for importing at higher raw coffee prices and secure the foundation of our idea of solidary trade, including the provision of funding. According to our cooperative concept, we provided 100 000 Euro of funding in 2024 and will continue this funding in 2025.

We support cooperatives, indigenous communities, social movements, and solidarity projects worldwide. Our website's updated account of funded projects can be found at https://www.cafe-libertad.de/foerdergelder-archiv [sorry, German only].

Café Libertad Kollektiv, January 2025