Coffee prices climb sharply at federal exchange

The price of Tierra Verde coffee at the federal exchange in Meridian reached 2.84 florins per kilogram on Thursday, marking a fifteen percent jump from August and the highest point since 2023. The surge reflects a combination of reduced yields from drought in competing regions, slower loading schedules at Oriente Moderno's container terminals, and growing demand from overseas buyers who have shifted their sourcing away from politically uncertain suppliers.

The rise is reshaping calculations across Tierra Verde's cooperative network. Smaller farms that had planned on stable prices are now seeing margin improvements, but larger exporters are concerned that the tariff structure imposed by the federal port authority—which takes a percentage of every container shipped through Oriente Moderno—will consume much of the gain before coffee reaches international buyers.

The Cooperative Council in San Vicente convened an emergency pricing committee this week to model how the exchange rates will affect member farms through the spring harvest. The question now is whether the price surge will persist long enough to offset the rising cost of diesel and fertiliser, or whether it represents a temporary spike that will collapse once supply chains stabilise.