A Coffee Importer Discusses Impending Price Hikes Across The Board – CoffeeTalk

Chris Kornman, a coffee specialist, educator and importer for Royal Coffee, discusses the challenges faced by the coffee industry due to tariffs. The company imports beans from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Central America, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, and imports coffee from over 30 countries. The company has raised its café prices by 50 cents for every drink, except for their $2 dark roast, which is an entry point for customers unfamiliar with specialty coffee prices.

The coffee industry is facing an unprecedented crisis, as rising costs and uncertainty about tariffs and climate change are affecting everyone involved. One part of this equation is asking customers to pay a little bit more for a cup of coffee. The tariffs come on top of historic high coffee-bean prices for the entire calendar year of 2025, attributed to bad weather in Brazil and Vietnam. Energy and labor costs continue to rise, and shipping costs have also gone up astronomically over the past couple of years. The cost of wholesale, unroasted coffee is already double or sometimes triple what people are used to paying.

There is no real, meaningful relief on the horizon. There is a possibility that cheap coffees will be diluted by non-coffee products like vegetable pulp or their prices will be raised in ways that will shock the average customer. However, there is a little less sticker shock for fancy café customers who are used to paying $6 or $7 for a pour-over or a latte.

Coffee production in the US is limited to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and a small amount in California. The only places that are growing coffee commercially volume-wise are Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and a very small amount in California. The industry has been undervalued for a long time, and there is a problematic legacy that predates all of us.

To address this issue, there is an opportunity for increased awareness about good coffee, its cost, and its undervaluation. By not losing customers to alternative caffeine sources, the industry can continue to adapt and grow.

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