Your morning latte costs $4.50.
The author traced every penny through 17 years of coffee industry data, from your local café to farms in Honduras.
The result? Your barista captured $1.67 for 3 minutes of work. The farmer who spent 6 months growing your coffee? They profited $0.04.
That's not a typo. Four cents.
This isn't about individual greed—it's about infrastructure. The entire supply chain is architected to ensure 97% of value is captured before coffee reaches the farm gate.
It sounds extreme, but the bulk cost comes from the coffee shop and those costs seem very reasonable (labour, equipment, rent, milk etc.).
On the other hand, I buy high quality, roasted coffee and prepare it myself. I pay maybe $0.30 per cup. If you compare that amount to the $0.04 the farmer gets, it seems far easier to grasp.
