There is something strange going on with the price of a cup of coffee. It is not determined by how much it costs to get a cup of coffee. Large companies such as Douwe Egberts base their prices and the offering of coffee mainly on macroeconomic developments, such as the value of coffee according to the New York Stock Exchange and currency fluctuations. When coffee prices rise, these gains are primarily not invested in ensuring the coffee production capacity.
What needs to happen if we still want to drink coffee in 20 years
For many people, the day only really begins after a cup of coffee. But the way in which large coffee companies source their coffee today is not always economically sustainable. To ensure coffee consumption in the future, it is essential to make growing and harvesting coffee more sustainable by distributing the gains accordingly. “We are not investing enough in sustainable coffee plants and soil.”
These strategies of pricing and supply affect many actors in the coffee supply chain. “Without farmers, packagers or transporters, for example, there would be no coffee,” says Mónica Bernal Montero, a PhD candidate at Radboud University and a professor of Accounting at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, who is researching the sustainability of coffee. “I am investigating the microeconomic impact of actors in the coffee supply chain in relation to macroeconomic impact for the coffee sector. This also includes social costs, such as working conditions and wages, and the impact on the environment in the calculation.” Sjors Witjes, associate professor of organizational sustainability and circularity and one of Bernal Montero's supervisors, adds: “Whereas macroeconomic developments currently determine the price of coffee, this research adds the microeconomic impacts in the supply chain to determine where to invest best to ensure coffee consumption.”
Land cannot recover, farmers choose other work
We cannot expect coffee to be as readily available in, say, twenty years, especially if we continue on the same path, Bernal Montero and Witjes emphasise. “Global coffee consumption. demands a continuous supply of coffee beans, and the yield of coffee plants and soil.” Witjes: “The soil in which coffee grows needs time to recover, but due to constant demand, that soil is being further and further depleted.”
Not to mention all those involved in the coffee supply chain, "where resources, power, and responsibilities are distributed in different ways. However, it is in the first mile of the chain, where the coffee growers are located, that the impact of the rising global demand is directly felt on their land and coffee crops", explains Bernal Montero. “In Colombia, around 549,000 families work as coffee farmers, a profession they have often practiced for generations, but one that is becoming more difficult to sustain with the uncertainty of growing coffee in the future.”
Fieldwork in Colombia
To gain insight into the coffee production chain, Bernal Montero is collaborating with Blommers and 2CanTrades, two Nijmegen based companies in the coffee sector that consider sustainability to be of very important. “based on their different governance structures, we can better understand the role played by each actor—from the farmer to the final customer who consumes the cup of coffee.” says Witjes. “at the same time, Blommers and 2CanTrades can learn from the micro and macro economic implications of their decisions aimed at more sustainable coffee.”
In addition to her research in Nijmegen, Bernal Montero will also be doing fieldwork in Colombia in 2026. “Through interviews and observation, I want to see up close how coffee organisations work. From the way they keep track of their production to the way they pass on knowledge to each other and the words they use to do so.” Witjes already spent a month doing fieldwork in Colombia this summer, establishing contacts for Bernal Montero.
Making more conscious choices
With the insights of her research she will gain in the coming years, Bernal Montero not only wants to map out the actual costs of a cup of coffee, but she also hopes to encourage companies to make their own governance structures more sustainable. “And of course, I will also share the data I collect with the companies I will visit for my research.”
Not only can organisations in the coffee sector benefit from the research insights, it also enables consumers to know more about where their coffee comes from. “With each cup of coffee we buy and drink, we can ensure drinking this same cup of coffee in the future.”
This article is also available in Spanish. Read the Spanish translation
Contact information
- Organizational unit
- Nijmegen School of Management, Institute for Management Research, Business Administration
- Theme
- Sustainability, International, Society