29/01/2025
Super Super Long post incoming - please stick with us!
Let’s do some coffee math. There are no tricks, no markups - just real costs that make every kg of coffee possible at an actual coffee roastery.
1 - Green Coffee Costs Are Exploding
* January 2024: Approx $5 AUD per kg (green beans C price. Think of this as the stock market price for non-specialty coffee or the "base price" for commodity grade coffee)
* January 2025: Nearly $13 per kg
* Specialty coffee premium: Add $4 - $10 extra per kg for coffee that we use in our blends depending on bean/origin.
That means raw ingredient costs have more than doubled (close to tripled) in under 12 months.
2 - Roasting Shrinks Coffee (and Increases Costs)
🔥 Fun fact: When we roast green coffee for our blends, it loses between 16-18% of its weight. That means 1kg of green beans only yields around 800g of roasted coffee.
If green coffee costs around $20/kg after all premiums, that’s effectively $24 per kg of roasted coffee beans. (And we haven’t even packed or delivered it yet!)
3 - The Hidden Costs of Getting Coffee to our customers
Here are some of the other costs that go into delivering just 1kg of coffee:
- Packaging: $0.90 - $1.75 per coffee bag.
- $1.20 to 1.75 per cardboard box for delivery (yes, really)
- Fuel, repayments & insurance for the delivery van: Petrol prices huh? 😬
- Factory costs: Insurance, rent, electricity, and WorkCover plus repayments for a roaster that cost as much as a small house to purchase.
- Proper Staff wages: We employ four super dedicated locals who not only pack & deliver the coffee, but also support local cafés with training & servicing.
Add up the cost of the green coffee & then further add close to $10 per kg just to pack and deliver our product to customers 🙂
Despite these rising costs, we’re still trying to keep coffee affordable. But if you see your local café adjusting its per cup prices, please know that it isn’t trying to rip you off it's just trying to survive like we all are.
How can you help?
Support truly independent roasters and cafés. Every cup matters. 💛 Stay tuned for more info on what is driving these price rises
