Price Transparency

We disclose the FOB prices we pay at the origin port to give our customers insight into the return-to-origin of their payments. It’s important to note, however, that production costs for green coffee vary widely across the world, depending on country and specific circumstances. As such, the FOB price alone often lacks sufficient context. We view it as a useful point of comparison, but with certain limitations.

For instance, our coffee from the D.R. Congo must be shipped via Tanzania, so the FOB price also includes the cost of transporting the coffee from the D.R. Congo to the port in Tanzania—meaning not all of the price paid by the importer reaches the origin. In countries like Vietnam and Peru, coffee cherry processing practices differ. In Vietnam, cherries at varying ripeness stages are sold to central washing stations, whereas in Peru, farmers often process their harvests directly on their own farms. Therefore, direct price comparisons are challenging, as different levels of value are added to the coffee cherries through on-farm processing before they pass through the farm gate.

The reality of price transparency, as we’ve encountered in our work, is complex. Especially in remote regions, obtaining reliable data is often challenging, and to our knowledge, no standardized solution fits every situation or country.