The sharp fall in coffee prices has caught many stockholders of high-priced beans off guard. Concern is mounting among farmers about the outlook for the next harvest. From the start of the 2024–2025 coffee season through early 2025, futures prices on the London Robusta Coffee Exchange—commonly used as a benchmark by Vietnamese coffee traders—peaked several times at US$5,800 per ton. Meanwhile, on February 10, 2025, the New York Arabica Coffee Exchange, where prices guide raw coffee trading and roughly 60% of the world’s coffee volume is transacted, recorded a high of US$9,480 per ton. The drastic price fall The sharp decline in prices on the two coffee exchanges through the end of June 2025 has left traders grappling with heightened market volatility. In retrospect, the three months following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of the new tariff policy now appear to mark a pivotal turning point in global coffee pricing. Market analysts can make this observation without stirring controversy: Robusta coffee futures plunged from a peak of US$5,850 per ton to a low of US$3,459, briefly rebounding to US$3,600 before settling at US$3,661 per ton on June 27—a staggering drop of nearly US$2,200. Arabica prices fell even more sharply, tumbling […]

The sharp fall in coffee prices has caught many stockholders of high-priced beans off guard. Concern is mounting among farmers about the outlook for the next harvest. From the start of the 2024–2025 coffee season through early 2025, futures prices on the London Robusta Coffee Exchange—commonly used as a benchmark by Vietnamese coffee traders—peaked several times at US$5,800 per ton. Meanwhile, on February 10, 2025, the New York Arabica Coffee Exchange, where prices guide raw coffee trading and roughly 60% of the world’s coffee volume is transacted, recorded a high of US$9,480 per ton. The drastic price fall The sharp decline in prices on the two coffee exchanges through the end of June 2025 has left traders grappling with heightened market volatility. In retrospect, the three months following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of the new tariff policy now appear to mark a pivotal turning point in global coffee pricing. Market analysts can make this observation without stirring controversy: Robusta coffee futures plunged from a peak of US$5,850 per ton to a low of US$3,459, briefly rebounding to US$3,600 before settling at US$3,661 per ton on June 27—a staggering drop of nearly US$2,200. Arabica prices fell even more sharply, tumbling […]