Transparency Report 2025/26: What's Behind Our Green Coffee Prices

Since 2020, we have published our green coffee prices on our website. But figures alone tell us little. That's why we're presenting them for the first time in our first transparency report 25/26 with the context behind them: how we buy, what market prices do to our partners, and what stories lie behind three of our coffees.

Context, not just figures

We are a transparent company and communicate a lot across our various channels. Until now, we've provided the context for our prices separately from the figures – on the website, on YouTube and on social media. We've reported what we do, but also what we don't do. Now we're bringing the context and the figures together for the first time.

In just over eight years as a roastery, with a broad range and direct relationships with coffee producers, we've learned a lot – and continue to learn. Through our own experiences running a coffee farm, through coffee trips and countless conversations with producers, roasters and traders, figures take shape. Without context, they say little, and that's always a deficit when looking purely at the FOB price. Behind every figure lies a story. We're telling three of them here: that of Farmers Coffee (Brazil), that of Yulma Argueta (Guatemala) and that of BridAzul (Nicaragua).

Coffee is a people's business

When a coffee producer told me in Kenya in 2013 "Coffee is a people's business," I already believed him. But I could never have imagined that today, even though I work with coffee, I have much more to do with people than with the coffee itself.

Since 2017 we have been roasting commercially. Back then, we built a roastery in the basement of a residential building, bought coffee from friendly traders and just got started. Our range was manageable, yet we had the ambition to know everything about the coffees we purchased. We sought contact with importers who could tell us more about the background. We wanted to understand how high the FOB price was, and above all, what it meant – and what it didn't.

As a young company – since January 2017 as an independent GmbH – we had to develop a strategy: to be both economically successful in the long term and close to producers, and to pay correct prices for green coffee. Because good coffee is the result of good relationships. For the majority of our coffees, a meeting with a producer came first. From the meeting developed conversations, and when there was a spark, green coffee samples followed. If we liked them, a first import followed. And from a first import come shared projects – always in a way that works for both sides.

This report is a testament to its time. If we publish it again in a year, I hope that many of the names listed will appear again. We dedicate a substantial portion of our time to relationship cultivation. Actually, we work with coffee, but we're even more in the people's business.

— Philipp Schallberger, on behalf of the sourcing and roastery team. Basel, June 2026.

Thinking long-term in short-term times

The last five years have been extremely eventful in terms of green coffee. The pandemic, supply chain disruptions, the coffee exchange at all-time highs and growing challenges for coffee farms due to climate change have demanded all participants in the coffee chain to remain highly agile.

Photo: Tatiana Gomez

In the Sierra de Zongolica in Mexico, we have been working with Ensambles on the Toca project since 2021. The young cooperative Citlal Kaffen stores its coffee in the parchment in an old beneficio that was closed in 2013. Now they've brought it back into operation. This beneficio used to be a chicken farm – and also a church for the surrounding communities.

How we think about our role as a roastery

We communicate daily with our production partners. They are far away, but they are what makes it possible for us all to drink coffee. We learn from them what it takes today so we can still drink coffee tomorrow. Three formats show how we think about our work:

From Source to Sip – the roasting film

In our roasting film, we take you on a journey from coffee's origin to our roastery in Basel. We show what's behind a cup of coffee, starting from where the coffee comes from. Because without coffee producers, there are no coffee roasteries. A film by Larissa Bürgi about the people and the story behind the coffee.

Our 10 Coffee Commandments

Pointed and ambitious: In our 10 coffee commandments, you'll find ten powerful statements that sum up our work as a coffee roastery.

APAS and the Brazil coffee trip 2026

The APAS film is a tribute to the APAS cooperative and the relationship we've been building for several years. On the Brazil coffee trip 2026, Benjamin, Philipp, Gabi and Larissa traveled 1500 km through Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo: to organic producer Marcia, to the cooperative export laboratory Copervass, to the APAS cooperative and to Farmers Coffee. What emerges is a different picture of Brazil than the one that usually stays in your head – and conversations about partnership that you can't have via WhatsApp.

Visiting the Brioschi family in Pedra Azul, Espírito Santo.

What we bought in 2025/2026

The coffee harvest year differs from the calendar year because harvests take place at different times depending on the region of the world. We set June to May as our reporting period because we also make many contracts in the first half of the year.

The complete purchasing data is shown in the PDF

• We do not explicitly include coffees from the Adventure line here. These coffees are often one-time purchases and aim primarily for excellent quality in the cup.

In the mountainous region around Villa Rica, César Marin and his family produce specialty coffee on a farm that operates without external inputs. All fertilizers and plant protection products are produced in-house following regenerative practices. This makes them immune to market fluctuations in fertilizers. Not immune – and it's not just a farm – are producers to coffee price fluctuations. Even though we repeatedly bring up the issue of fixed prices, we haven't been able to establish any yet. A fixed price could help offset the fluctuations.

Green coffee prices from 2025 to 2026

In early January 2025, the C price – the global futures reference price for Arabica at the New York ICE exchange – was around 330 US cents per pound of green coffee. On February 12, 2025, Arabica reached its absolute all-time high: over 442 cents per pound, more than five times the long-term historical average. The previous record high was from 1977.

Three causes behind the historic price increase

In summer 2025, the price stagnated first and then fell slowly. US tariffs created uncertainty on all sides. This led to short-term, strong fluctuations – and especially to producers waiting to sell coffee at all. Gradually, speculative capital withdrew, and prices fell in autumn 2025.

Spring 2026 brought the turning point. Brazil's 2026/27 harvest is likely to become the largest ever measured, with a projected 66.7 million bags – 18 percent more than 2025. The exchanges react quickly to news, and so the positive reports from Brazil immediately impacted the price: in early June 2026, the C price fell to just 250 US cents, almost a halving compared to the high 15 months earlier.

Off we go in the Sierra de Zongolica, Mexico

What do these fluctuations mean for us?

We move with prices in an overall movement, up and down – at least with producers who use the C price as a reference. A differential, an individually designed premium, is added to the C price. Other producers set the price for us, still others ask us what we're willing to pay. It's a mix of approaches.

All producers know the movements at the New York exchange very well, because they influence the respective national coffee price. What happens in New York affects the national price in Mexico, which in turn determines the regional prices in Chiapas, Veracruz or Puebla. Prices emerge this way from regional prices, mixed with quality premiums, ecosystem services and a perceived markup. A price discount for us lies where we have bought long-term.

What do these fluctuations mean for producers?

The C price swung between 270 and 440 US cents per pound in the last 18 months. For producers, that means: sell or wait? Whoever locks in too early leaves money on the table; whoever waits too long risks a crash. Producers have also realized how speculation works and can influence prices by holding back their coffee.

Especially Brazilian farmers are holding back on sales in early June 2026, even though the harvest is running. Because every investment decision – new plants, fertilizer, labor – requires planning security that simply doesn't exist right now. The Iran war and inflation are causing additional costs for fertilizer and logistics, so decisions are also made cautiously by our partners.

Coffee producers have gotten used to fluctuations because the vast majority tie their prices more or less strongly to the exchange. But this recent magnitude of fluctuation has created a lot of uncertainty. So producers in Brazil, Mexico, India and Indonesia sold more coffee to the domestic market than they exported. Domestic sales generate quick cash, while export and payment take several weeks.

Three stories behind the figures

Farmers Coffee and the Compadre (Brazil)

In 2023, Philipp visited Farmers Coffee in Venda Nova do Imigrante on the recommendation of algrano. "They've got drive," he was told. Farmers Coffee is called that because all four founders are sons of coffee producers. On the first visit, they had just started buying and marketing coffees from producers in Espírito Santo. Their education at the renowned IFES University, their openness and youthful drive helped them grow quickly.

The Romão family contributes the Arabica portion to the Compadre.

In 2024 they visited us in Switzerland, and we discussed how we could work together. This is how the idea for the Compadre Espresso came about. Because they buy from and export Arabica and Conilon Robusta producers, they were able to put together the blend according to our idea: a 50:50 blend that Farmers Coffee pre-mixes for us before export and bags as a pre-blend in coffee sacks. They established a new process for this and fully committed to the project. The coffee is well received, and in 2026 we visited them again in a small group – as well as the family that contributes the Arabica portion to the Compadre.

Farmers Coffee is extremely customer-focused and sees roasteries as partners it wants to understand. We share all figures, inform each other about projects and business performance – the trust is there. Partners like Farmers Coffee show how much fun it is to work with strong, networked companies that are themselves close to producers.

Yulma Argueta and the Amigo (Guatemala)

Yulma Argueta didn't start coffee production until she was 40. Coffee producers are usually born into a coffee family and eventually take over the operation. Yulma's story was different. With her family, she ran a farm in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala, that focused on horse breeding and timber production. But coffee was always her passion, so she started planting a few hectares relatively late. She sold the first harvests on the local market – she wasn't really aware of her coffee's quality.

Yulma with Nadja and Philipp at the World of Coffee in Geneva, 2025

She came into contact with Grounds for Empowerment, an online program that created a network of Latin American women producers during the pandemic. Philipp gave a workshop on storytelling at the time, and Yulma participated. She shared her biographical story with the group. It was an emotional moment that created a connection. We stayed in touch, and a year later she sent us samples. The washed coffee from 1800 m above sea level was very good, but we couldn't find an export partner who would have taken on the effort for a few bags of green coffee.

In 2025 it worked out: Yulma was able to export coffee outside Guatemala for the first time. We roasted her coffee for the Amigo filter coffee. It also went over well with other roasteries, and so we were able to help her expand her network. So the coffee can be exported with as little effort as possible, we connected her with various exporters; she decided on algrano. In 2026 we bought from her for the second time. We see it as our responsibility to continue networking partners so they can establish themselves broadly. Because that's how we grow together.

BridAzul and Doña Margarita (Nicaragua)

When we took over Finca Santa Rita in Nicaragua in 2017, the BridAzul team was just starting to conduct various fermentation experiments. They tested hundreds of processes and stabilized them until they had their handful – with which they regularly make it into the top 10 at Cup of Excellence competitions. In one of these processes, cherries are sorted in a water channel, placed in rain barrels, sealed and fermented for four days. Then they dry in the shade. The hours in the barrel and the drying duration produce different sensory profiles.

One of them BridAzul called "Lucid Dreams" – a coffee that was a dream, but whose flavor notes were clear to see. It shows notes of sour cherry and passion fruit every year, is heavy and juicy at the same time. We were delighted, but wanted to name the coffee after a person, as we do with all our coffees. Since our local partner didn't want to appear on the package, we named it after a former owner of our Finca Santa Rita: Doña Margarita. The name sounded right, and so did the coffee.

Every year BridAzul refined the process and limited the cherries used to two farms – Santa Rita and a neighboring farm – which made the coffee increasingly homogeneous. Today we pour it in our cafés for three months. There are regular customers who wait a long time for this season and otherwise ask: "When is Doña coming back?" When a coffee gets a nickname, it's on its way to becoming a classic.

How we buy coffee

"Start with the end in mind" is our guiding principle before we even think about a specific green coffee. First we ask ourselves: What purpose should the green coffee serve? What drink, what extraction method, what customer group, what flavor profile and what price expectation? Once these questions are answered, we first search within our existing network of producers. Ideally, we buy several coffees from the same producers.

Diversification of origin

In recent years, we've positioned ourselves more broadly geographically and structurally. We had a large Brazil share in our portfolio for a long time and still do, but we're diversifying within Brazil across different regions (Minas Gerais, Campo das Vertentes, Matas de Minas, Espírito Santo). Coffees from India are newer to our range, and the share of Colombian coffees is – measured against Colombia's global significance – still very small. With this diversification, we're preparing ourselves for possible supply disruptions. Especially with larger volumes, we've become more risk-averse and stock up on regularly roasted coffees, because some surprise always waits.

Sorted and packaged coffee is loaded into containers in Nicaragua.

Diversification of importers

We typically buy through carefully selected importers with whom we share a lot in common. We've worked with algrano since 2017 and source the majority of our coffees through the platform. In Mexico we work with Ensambles, This Side Up made coffee from India accessible to us. We share a long-standing friendship with Falcon, and with Plot Coffee we were in Ethiopia, where they are well connected. We rely on Belco in Colombia. Especially with micro and nanolots, we work with specialized importers who have a clear specialty. That's how we've greatly expanded our importer network.

Order as early as possible

We try to give our partners a volume estimate six to eight months before the coffee arrives so they can plan. Early ordering is followed by a contract, which we also sign as early as possible. Regularity and predictability lead to necessary stability and security on both sides.

Pricing

Pricing is as individual as the coffees themselves. Broadly, there are three ways:

We prefer it most when producers name their price and explain it clearly. We're suspicious of overly low prices, as well as fabulous prices that no longer reflect production costs but instead depict brand value. To get as close as possible to a "right" price, it requires open conversation – so that both sides can say the price was fair. For us, negotiating prices is as much a part of it as avoiding speculative practices.

Contact and visits

We have visited all the producers of the green coffees we buy most – from one-time so far to regularly. Throughout the year we stay in regular contact, sometimes more superficial, sometimes deeper, as it is in a partnership. Not every delivery runs perfectly: delays are part of it, sometimes defective coffee sacks, rarely also cancellations because, for example, a community lot can't be mixed. There's always some challenge somewhere in the coffee industry. But we've learned that there's always a solution. And when we find it together with the producers themselves, we're building the foundation of a strong, future-proof relationship.

Year after year we visit the Toca project, which strengthens trust.

Time differences, calls and trips

A romantic long-distance relationship works when communication happens regularly. A partnership-based long-distance relationship follows the same principles. The favorite tool of coffee producers seems to be WhatsApp; we write emails when it comes to specific contracts. You have to imagine: We sometimes talk about six-figure sums, agree on volumes and prices via WhatsApp – and then at the very end there's still an email where we nail down the chats.

Since we source a large portion of our coffees from Central and South America, we communicate with Yulma, César and Co. when late afternoon begins here. One of our running gags: "The Latinos are awake now, time to chat!" The important thing is that we're not just in contact before and during the harvest, but especially after – between harvests. This between-harvest time is our strategic communication time: the pressure is off, we can recap and look to the future together. Communication during harvest is like a 90-minute football game: focused and fast. Between harvests it's like training – more time, more space. That's why we usually schedule our trips during the season between harvests.

Trust over control

Much of our daily work as an SME happens through direct communication, personal exchange and extended trust. Less happens through certifications and formal control – internally and externally. On one hand, because we know our partners directly, exchange with them and visit; on the other hand, because they themselves forgo certifications and we as buyers don't necessarily require them. Trust over control is our approach. It requires exchange – and closeness.

The closeness framework by Edelmann et al. (2020) distinguishes four types of closeness:

With organizational, social and cognitive closeness, we're closely aligned with many partners; institutional closeness remains informal in nature. To secure this externally, third-party certifications (Fair Trade, EU/CH-Organic, Demeter) would help. But for now, we won't lead all partners to such certification. If they want it, we support it – as we've done with APAS and are currently doing with Toca.

We also systematically evaluate what role producers' own guidelines can play for us. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) are local, alternative quality assurance systems. They certify producers through the active participation of all stakeholders and are based on physical, social networks, direct exchange and trust – a bottom-up approach that can adapt to the specific ecological and social conditions of a region. When we buy coffees without knowing the exact background, they are at least certified coffees – like a bio-certified Robusta lot via InterAmerican. We don't sell coffee in classic retail and therefore aren't bound by third-party certifications that are often required in food retail.

What are our plans?

For a long time it was a running gag for us to ask each other: "Come on, let's talk about growth again. How do we think about it?" We are a company in steward ownership, we own ourselves and don't have to meet investor-ordered goals. We set them ourselves, grow organically and invest where we see opportunities for development. We don't have growth pressure – we have growth enthusiasm. Because when we grow, our partners grow with us. If we sell more Amigo with Yulma's coffee, Yulma can deliver more to us, and we become more economically important to each other.

This strengthens a sense of connection that leads to more resilience on both sides. The boundary is mutual dependency, which we must avoid. Shared growth is the focus of our first Producers Conference at the end of June 2026. It's called, in effect, Creciendo Juntos – growing together. Our plans include growth, but not just in numbers, but also on an interpersonal level. We prefer to work long-term with the same producers rather than roast more volume at all costs. Rather learn even more from each other than make oversized promises. Strong growth also requires us to be able to accompany it – for the team to manage it and infrastructure to allow more volume. We develop these scenarios at our own pace so we remain reliable partners on one side and a specialty roastery with high quality standards on the other.

Responsible for content: Philipp Schallberger, Kaffeemacher AG, Güterstraße 140, 4053 Basel. Published in June 2026.