2023 was an up and down year for the coffee commodity market. For a small margin wholesale and retail coffee company, we are both price sensitive -- green coffee purchasing, shipping and storage accounts for about 20% of total company revenue -- and our goal is to be nimble in paying high living-wage prices for great lots of coffees from producers we hold in the highest respect; and find great value coffees for our blends to try keep our own business sustainable and in the black.
Big Picture Takeaways
Bluebeard paid an average of $4.25 on 47,837 lbs of coffee purchased in 2023, up 8 cents per lb. from 2022 numbers, +.66/2021 and +.93/2020 numbers. For perspective, coffee's commodity price (C Market) began 2023 at $1.81 per lb, bottomed out at $1.46 in September and closed the year on a steep upswing $1.94.
The Commodity C Market price of coffee is considered to be an average pound of Arabica coffee in Brazil, the largest producer of coffee in the world, now followed closely by Vietnam. Bluebeard regularly pays precipitously higher prices for access to great coffees in our goal of gaining steady access to the best beans, farmed and processed by folks who deserve to live and prosper for their ongoing efforts.
Bluebeard is proud of these coffees, growers, source partners and our role in their continued sustainability. The value of these people and their exceptional coffees is reflected in our significant investment in their livelihoods.
Our listed price is the Ex-Warehouse (EXW) price, paid for from the point of entry warehouse in the US. Shipping and storage in and from mostly NY and the Bay Area are not included here. As EXW covers nearly the entirety of our contracts and purchases, we utilize it.
The manner in which our partners at source have remunerated farmers is a fascinating and complex subject, which we won't begin to address here, save to pass along that it varies widely and necessarily by country, community, processor/coop/community/farmer, and stage at which coffee is purchased, whether it be cherry, parchment, bagged and ready for export, etc.
Should you seek it, we would invite you to dive into the web sites of our import partners, who embody many best-in-industry practices in coffee, paying at the top of the market to farmers and communities in the interests of sustainability, living wages, sound environmental practices and value paid throughout the coffee chain.
Thank you,
Kevin McGlocklin
Bluebeard Coffee Roasters