The price of coffee is increasing faster than any other domestic grocery, and it is not only tariffs that drive this process – bad weather, war and frustration of market traders are also responsible for the rise.
Coffee prices rose by a staggering 18.4% last year, according to government data from February.
Most other household items — from groceries to cars to hairdos — aren’t approaching that rate of increase, figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show.
That increase has affected both producers and consumers, and reflects a trend that has continued since the epidemic — a pound of roasted coffee costs $4.17 on average in 2020, and $9.46 in 2026.
A storm of factors has collided to fuel that increase, with drought in the coffee-producing countries of Brazil and Vietnam around 2024 leading to crop shortages that have caused chaos, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Then in July 2025 President Trump’s tariff war hit a 40% tax on products from Brazil – the largest producer of coffee in the world – which causes further increases for US exporters, who have passed on more costs to consumers.
To make matters worse, according to the WSJ, hedge funds and commodity traders are buying coffee contracts as they bet on the outcome of the drought and the reaction to tariffs.
That causes prices to dominate, according to Emory University professor and pricing expert Peter Roberts.
The Iran war has also caused price volatility as the full effects of the potential oil shortage begin to be felt on world markets.
All of those changes have left America’s coffee roasters and small coffee shops jittery.
They report that they struggle to keep up with larger businesses that can save costs by bulk orders, or by hiring workers whose full-time work fetches the best prices in the market.
“There are too many brands to keep up with,” said Reverie Roasters of Kansas owner Andrew Gough, explaining that he struggles to keep up with the market while running the day-to-day business.
“I have to fix the bathroom. I have to fix the broken door,” he told the Journal.
Gough charged $15 for 12-oz of his famous coffee beans for years, but was forced to raise the price to $17 last year — and expects to raise it again to $18 in April.
“You’re always worried that if you raise the prices you’re going to lose the customer,” Gough said.
But he doesn’t have a choice – last year Gough found himself paying $4.30 for a pound of ground coffee after months of paying $2.41.
That equated to an additional $200,000 per year in annual operating costs.
Trump’s charges — which were struck down by the US Supreme Court in January — also ended up costing Gough more than $14,000 on their own.
And it’s not just roasters who have suffered — small businesses like NYC food carts have been forced to raise prices as they deal with the coffee crisis.
Aziz Changezi, a 20-year-old NYC coffee cart vendor, told The Post in March that his trusty 3-pound jar of Kirkland Columbia coffee went from $10 in 2020 to $22 this year — prompting him to raise prices by 50 cents.
“Everything is more expensive,” said Changezi.
#price #coffee #rising #faster #grocery #store #reason #fees