How High Prices Are Exposing the Hollow Promises of Specialty Coffee (Part one)
The Reckoning of the Specialty Coffee Movement
Between 2010 and 2020, global coffee prices remained consistently low, and this created an environment where brands were able to position themselves as ethical pioneers. Many claimed they were paying more to producers, leveraging this as a key point of difference.
Promising to uplift producers, this narrative appealed to consumers seeking alignment with values like fairness and sustainability. But these claims often lacked substance. With coffee prices now at historic highs, the industry is confronting uncomfortable truths about its reliance on hollow promises and superficial narratives.
The low-price era allowed specialty coffee to emerge as a distinct segment, claiming to transcend the inequities of the global commodity market. Positioning itself as more ethical, sustainable, and producer-focused, specialty coffee brands thrived by creating an ideological distance from 'commodity' coffee.
Yet, without mechanisms for true price discovery or equitable value distribution, this positioning relied more on marketing than meaningful impact. Premiums paid during this time, framed as revolutionary, were marginal in absolute terms and rarely addressed systemic issues.
Specialty coffee’s rise was less about transformation and more about optics. It capitalised on a path of least resistance, crafting a narrative of quality, care, and fairness without fundamentally disrupting the global supply chain.
Now, in an era of high coffee prices, the industry is forced to engage with the realities of a volatile market where paying more is no longer optional. This shift demands more than ideological rhetoric - it requires transparency, accountability, and tangible mechanisms for change.
Compounding this challenge is the reality of what drives consumer behaviour in the premium goods sector. For most consumers, the purchase of premium goods - including specialty coffee - is driven not by ethical considerations but by status, lifestyle, and self-expression.
The association with ethical standards of higher quality and price is, therefore, a red herring. While brands may claim that their pricing reflects sustainable practices, the consumer’s motivation often lies elsewhere - aligning with a desired image or expressing personal values through consumption.
This dynamic raises a deeper question: do the ethical instruments required to decommoditise a product like coffee even belong in the consumer sphere?
Ethical coffee narratives conflate price and sustainability in ways that obscure the fundamental challenges of decommoditising a global agricultural product. True decommoditisation requires mechanisms like fair price discovery, equitable value distribution, and producer empowerment - processes that are more systemic than consumer-facing.
While marketing efforts focus on individual choices, systemic change requires collaboration across the supply chain, regulatory frameworks, and producer-led initiatives (such as the Sombra Agroforestry Project) that operate beyond the limits of consumer influence.
The reckoning faced by the coffee industry is an opportunity to reflect on its foundational shortcomings. It must move beyond symbolic gestures toward structural change. This includes embracing frameworks for sustainable pricing, rethinking value distribution, and educating consumers on what ethical coffee truly means.
More importantly, the industry must reconsider the role of the consumer in driving systemic change. True transformation may require ethical practices to operate in a realm that prioritises producers and supply chain integrity over consumer validation.
By confronting these realities, the coffee industry can create a future where ethical practices are not just tools for branding but the foundation of a sustainable, equitable system - one that prioritises real change over aspirational storytelling.