Dear Fat Poppy Fam, ✍️

Our coffee prices have gone up… but only slightly and there’s good reason for it.

Before we get into our longwinded explanation, we want to start by saying… our coffee prices have gone up, but only slightly… we’re talking $1 for our 1kg blends. We also want to say, it’s only our coffee prices that have gone up, not anything else… like our super cute Tees.

Here goes…

Raising our coffee prices is something we don’t like doing… in fact, it’s something we’ve only done a few times since starting our biz over 9 years ago. In a quest to keep our coffee affordable, we usually absorb most price increases that come our way, such as with green bean, packaging, and shipping. But, we’re a small biz who started with a mission “to help everyone enjoy an exceptionally good cup of coffee, but for each and every cup to do good in the wider world too” and we are determined to stay true to it. Our mission means we refuse to purchase or sell coffee (green bean) that’s poor quality or unethical. Business to us is not just profit, but doing something we’re proud of.

So, why now have our prices gone up?

The simplest way to put it is the cost of importing coffee (green bean) has soared. For some prominent coffees, such as Brazil and Colombia, prices have increased by 50% in 2021 alone, with more predicted increases in 2022. This is not just a Fat Poppy thing, it’s something the world of coffee is experiencing… something that’s affecting people on every level of the supply chain, most notably coffee farmers.

Why though? Well, a couple of reasons:

1. Supply – thanks to La Niña, drought and frost have caused huge supply issues in Brazil (the world’s largest coffee producing country) which has driven prices up. The severe weather has damaged or even *sigh* killed many coffee trees 🥺 and when farmers have to replant their coffee trees, they have to wait another three years before their next harvest. Three. Years. It’s devastating for farmers because coffee is their livelihood. In order to ensure farmers can survive until coffee trees thrive again, prices must go up to compensate for the limited supply available.
2. Covid – a friend of ours that hasn’t quite got the memo to leave… Covid. The effects and aftermath of the pandemic have caused steep rises in freight and shipping costs to get coffee all the way to Oz. Not to mention the added pressure of labour shortages and the price of fertiliser for farmers. Essentially, everything is just much more expensive at the moment.

So, because of this… our business had to make a decision. We could A) alter the flavour of our blends (Hollywood & Blackbird) by subbing out our big blend contributors, Brazil and Colombia, with other origins; B) keep Brazil and Colombia in our blends but source substantially lower grade coffee and rid our values of paying a fair price; or C) accept coffee is an important but sometimes fragile commodity that we, as roasters and consumers, should always pay a fair price for to protect the livelihoods of farmers.

To be honest, A and B were never options for us, we just wanted to highlight why our coffee prices have gone up. We chose C when we started our biz and we still choose C today. So, for now, our coffee prices need to go up. The good news is… while coffee prices may be out of our control, the choice to remain a quality and ethical driven business is not. We’re still choosing to import the bee’s knees of beans and pay a fair price for them along the way. All of this, so you can drink a damn fine cup of coffee and feel good about it.

We hope you still choose to support our mission too.

So, hey, now we’ve gotten that off our chest. We wanted to thank ya’ll for your continued support through what has been a challenging few years in small business. You’re the reason we’re here, doing what we love, and pushing us to keep sourcing top-notch coffee. 👌

Love from,
Sasha & the Fat Poppy Team