80% of all the coffee you drink is produced by smallholders. And smallholders are just people, families, on small parcels of land, who grow the beans as their livelihood, as their way of putting food on the table and sending their kids to the local school.

It takes 25 million of them to produce the coffee that you drink. But most of them aren’t making a living income. So, how much does the average coffee farmer make? And what can we do to make a difference now? 

How Much Does the Average Coffee Farmer Make?

A Living Income

At its heart, a living income is just about being able to survive at the same basic level as others in your community. This means being able to have food and a roof over your head. It means being able to access healthcare and education, and being able to afford to get to and from the places you need to be. It’s not expecting much, just a decent standard of living. But most of our farmers aren’t getting there.

The Research

Fairtrade International reports that as of 2019, small coffee producers receive less than $1.00 a pound (or $2.20 per kilo) for their beans. A 2017 study also found that of those surveyed only Indonesian farmers could earn a living income from coffee production alone, while 25% of Indian farmers, 50% of Vietnamese farmers and 100% of Kenyan farmers did not (the South American producers withdrew from participation in the survey).

The Problems

There are a lot of different factors at play that ultimately impact the coffee producers. One of these is the inherent volatility in the coffee industry. Some years are great for coffee beans – and some aren’t. And climate change and soil degradation impacts where you can successfully grow coffee beans, with each year making it harder and harder to produce quality coffee even in areas that were traditionally coffee sweet spots.

Each step of the coffee supply chain will take its percentage of the coffee’s value, too. The beans will pass through the hands of growers, traders, processors, exporters, roasters (that’s us!) and retailers, until it finally comes out as the rich, black brew in your coffee cup. Most smallholding farmers have almost no idea where their coffee goes, what price it ends up selling for or who’s ultimately drinking it. And most coffee drinkers know even less about where their coffee is coming from.

This lack of transparency makes it hard for smallholders to understand the value of what they’re creating, and certainly limits their ability to fight for their living income. And when the farmers aren’t able to maintain a living income and support their families, they simply stop planting coffee beans, and plant something else. And that means less diversity, less varietals and less flavour profiles. And if you love coffee the way we do, that’s not a great outcome. 

So What Can You Do?

‘One key factor that is harming the future of coffee is well within the reach of every coffee drinker – price.’ – Peter Kettler, Senior Coffee Manager at Fairtrade International

You can’t do anything about whether there is rain or not in a particular year, and you can’t affect the trade prices (we don’t think). And while you can certainly play your part in combatting climate change, you won’t be able to fix that overnight either. But what you can do is make sure that you’re paying a fair price for every cup of coffee that you buy, and that you’re supporting coffee shops and roasters that are passing that value down to the family farmers.

If shops sell a cup of coffee for $1.00 (we won’t name, names), how much of that do you think is being passed down to the farmer? Not much. But when you pay market value for transparently-sourced coffee beans from a shop that drills down to the beans’ origination (that’s us, too!) then you can be confident that the farmers in that particular supply chain at least are being paid a living wage for that particular bag of beans.

We Can’t Fix Everything…

But we can make sure that every sip of coffee we’re taking is helping to build and support the coffee industry, and the farmers that are the foundation and backbone of the coffee industry. So that we can answer the question, ‘how much does the average coffee farmer make’ with an answer that makes us feel as good as coffee tastes. Because at the end of the day, a stronger industry, with more diversified smallholders, means better quality coffee, too.

Win, win.

Buying beans helps, too. Check out what’s in our blue cups in our shop.