In the conventional chain mostly very little — a farmer often receives only 5–10% of the final price. With Fairtrade and Direct Trade, the share is significantly higher, at 15–30%.

Do coffee farmers really make money from the coffee price?

In the conventional chain mostly very little — a farmer often receives only 5–10% of the final price. With Fairtrade and Direct Trade, the share is significantly higher, at 15–30%.

Why this is so

Coffee passes through many hands on its way from the shrub to your cup: farmer, cooperative, exporter, importer, roaster, retailer. Each station takes its share — and the farmer is at the beginning of the chain, where margins are smallest.

The numbers in conventional trade:

• The world market price for raw coffee (Arabica, C-Market) fluctuates between 2 and 6 US dollars per kilogram of raw bean.
• A kilogram of supermarket coffee costs 8–15 euros in the store. The farmer receives approx. 0.50–1.50 euros of that — so 5–10%.
• Worldwide, around 100 million people live from coffee cultivation, many below the subsistence level.
• The production costs per kilogram for a smallholder are 1.50–3.00 US dollars. If the market price falls below this, the farmer makes a loss.

Fairtrade:

Fairtrade guarantees a minimum price (currently approx. 3.10 USD/kg for Arabica) plus a premium of 0.44 USD/kg for community projects. This protects against price crashes, but is still below what many farmers would need to operate sustainably.

Direct Trade:

Specialty roasteries that buy directly from farms often pay 5–15 USD/kg — 2–5 times the world market price. The advantage: no middlemen, direct relationship, quality feedback to the farmer. The disadvantage: not certified, no independent control.

Why this is important:

If a farmer doesn’t receive a living income, they cannot invest in quality — no selective harvesting, no careful processing, no shade-grown cultivation. Low prices lead to lower quality, which leads to even lower prices. A vicious circle.

In practice at Green Wall Coffee

At Sophienstraße 27, we know where our beans come from and what the farmer received for them. Transparency is important to us — not as marketing, but because fair prices are the foundation for good coffee. Anyone who buys a bag from us pays more than in the supermarket, but a larger portion of it actually reaches the farmer.

Related questions

• Is coffee sustainable or climate-damaging?
• Why does specialty coffee cost more than supermarket coffee?
• Is coffee capsule coffee unecological?

Drop by Sophienstraße 27 — Mon–Fri 8am–5pm, Sat 10am–5pm.