January 2026 Newsletter
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a relaxing and reinvigorating end to 2025 and wish everyone the best for the coming year!
We’re back! The store pages have been reactivated and our full range is now available to order. We’ll begin dispatch from tomorrow (Thursday the 9th of January). Some initial orders may take an extra day to dispatch as we rush get the full catalogue of beans roasted and ready to ship out.
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Here's to a better 2026!
2025 has been the most tumultuous year for the coffee industry in our 40 years of experience. Coming out of major climate caused crop failures from the two largest producing countries, Brazil and Vietnam, the industry suffered a head on collision with U.S. tariffs.
You may ask why USA import taxes should have any effect on us? It's because the world price for Arabica coffee is set in the USA by brokerage companies mostly operating out of New York. A lot of the green coffee imported by Australia (and many other countries) was being transshipped via the USA, and the introduction of tariffs at the major USA ports was a major shock to the system.
At the same time as world coffee production has fallen, world coffee consumption has had a huge jump. The countries that actually grow the coffee are consuming more "in house", plus China and its huge coffee chain "Luckin Coffee" growing their imports by 90% in the last 5 years.
The net results of the climate induced shortages, the tariffs, and the costs involved in re-routing coffee imports to avoid transiting through U.S. warehouses has been a threefold increase in Australian green coffee prices.
But wait! There's More! Our own homegrown natural gas price hikes have led to a 20% increase in roasting costs as well. The upshot is that we've had to raise our prices to remain in business.
The other unfortunate result has been the demise of our monthly special. We've had to fight hard just to get enough green coffee of the right quality at affordable prices. The quotes we've had for formerly affordable "specials" have been so high that they simply don't offer value for money.
So in 2026 what we can hope for is that the crops may grow, the direct shipping ports remain open, the energy prices stabilize and the Great Orange Disruptor gets a kick in the ego and forgets about tariffs.
Not too much to ask for?
Until next time,
Alan & Marc