The good news first: Your morning coffee isn’t going anywhere.
Despite turbulent economic and political times—and headlines warning of soaring prices—your daily cup is safe. In fact, it can be a force for good. And it’s in your hands to keep it that way. Pachamama offers something different: A steady alternative to the unpredictable swings of the commodity market. As a 100 percent farmer-owned company, we ensure that farmers, not speculators, set the price. This creates stability and resilience for producers who will continue to deliver exceptional coffee to you in the most direct way possible. Let us explain.
In recent months, dramatically rising coffee prices have dominated the headlines. The benchmark price for Arabica beans, also known as the C-Price, surged to $4.25 per pound in February, hitting a nominal all-time high, more than doubling in less than a year.
The price hasn’t come down much since and the impact of the recently introduced tariffs will only aggravate this situation. Experts agree that prices at grocery stores and cafes across the country will increase significantly as a result, because higher costs for roasters are often passed down to consumers.
Why Are Coffee Prices So High?
The recent surge in coffee prices isn’t random. The New York Times reports that a key driver is climate change. Brazil and Vietnam — two of the world’s largest coffee producers — have faced back-to-back droughts, erratic rainfall, and extreme heat, destroying harvests and lowering global supply of coffee.
Meanwhile, consumer demand remains strong around the world. The global supply chain bottleneck combined with tariff speculation on the commodities market resulted in this record-breaking C-Price.
As explained in Daily Coffee News, it’s important to understand what the C-Price actually is: It’s a futures contract traded on a commodities exchange. A commodity price is a benchmark influenced by a complex and often unpredictable set of circumstances.
Why High Prices Are Not Helping Farmers
On the surface, a high price might seem like good news for coffee farmers. After all, higher prices should mean higher earnings, right? Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated. On a day-to-day basis, a high C-Price is not the price most smallholder farmers actually receive and it does not guarantee a better income. Here's why:
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Skyrocketing cost of production: Climate change comes with extreme weather events, temperature changes and damaged crops, forcing farmers to invest more in recurring planting of trees and pest control.
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Market volatility: The C-Price is volatile by nature. Farmers have no control over it and cannot take the risk of randomly selling to local middlemen. Most choose to continue selling to their cooperative to maintain consistency and stability.
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Lack of ownership: Most coffee farmers sell raw beans to exporters, who sell to importers, who sell to roasters, who sell to retailers. By the time coffee reaches your cup, it has changed hands multiple times — and the vast majority of profit is captured far from the farm.
The truth is, while the C-Price might be soaring, the benefits rarely trickle down to the people who grow coffee. If we really want to fix coffee’s broken system, we need to stop obsessing over prices and start talking about profits and ownership.
The Pachamama Model: 100% Farmer-Owned
At Pachamama Coffee, we believe there’s a better business model: 100 percent owned by coffee farmers. Not “partnered with,” not “working alongside,” but owned by the farmers themselves - and we are the only coffee company in North America that’s fully owned by smallholder farmers in Latin America and Africa.
Pachamama’s farmer-owners are organized in cooperatives from five countries: Perú, Nicaragua, Guatemala, México, and Ethiopia. Farmers are our sole shareholders. They own the brand, the roastery, the cafes, the website, and the company. Most importantly, this means that they set their own price for their coffee based on what they need to thrive, not on what a commodities trader in New York thinks coffee is worth. The highest price the farmer can earn is selling directly to the consumer.
A Direct Line Between Farmers and Consumers
Farmer ownership and control over prices changes everything because the business model is decoupled from the commodity market. It’s an alternative channel that creates the most direct relationship possible between consumers and coffee farmers. Farmers benefit twice: Upfront for their green beans and later when all profit from the consuming country is returned to the farms.
Pachamama is the most direct way to buy coffee. No middlemen. No speculative commodity trading. Setting the price and controlling the supply chain creates power and this power is directly generated by you, the consumer.
Farmers know that in order to keep your trust, they need to deliver incredible and highest-quality coffee — every single time. Wouldn’t you do the same if it was your own company?
Quality Rooted in Ownership
Ownership drives quality. When farmers grow coffee for the company they own, they take pride in every step of the process — from planting and harvesting to processing and shipping. They are growing coffee for their brand, their customers.
That’s why Pachamama provides some of the highest-quality, organically grown coffee beans available. We consistently deliver the farmer’s very best beans - handpicked in several rounds at peak ripeness, the cream of the crop. As our farmer-owners reinvest into their farms we are building something lasting and resilient — with quality at the core.
Because we are not beholden to the C-Price, we don’t have to pass unpredictable costs on to our customers. As we watch price spikes in volatile markets, we remain steady — with a pricing model rooted in consistency, not speculation.
Why Ownership Matters More Than Price
Farmers don’t simply need a better price, they need a stronger position in the value chain. Ownership means power. Ownership means governance. It means voice. Farmers shape strategy, and build equity and they are no longer at the bottom of a supply chain — they are leading it.
This is what makes Pachamama different. And this is why the conversation in coffee must shift. We should stop asking what price farmers are paid and start asking: Do they own a fair share of the value they create?
The Solution Lies in Your Hands
The most powerful force in the coffee industry isn’t the market — it’s you. As a consumer, you can decide how to buy coffee, and Pachamama gives you the most direct way to do so. When you choose to buy from a company that’s 100% farmer-owned, you reverse the traditional supply chain. You’re putting power back into the hands of the people who grow the coffee — investing directly in their livelihoods, the quality of their harvests and the protection of coffee farmland for generations to come.
