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by somberi 214 days ago
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.
1 comments

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.