U.S. Coffee Prices Soar at the Supermarket

Prices for roasted coffee at United States grocery stores rose 21.7% in August over the same period a year ago, representing the biggest price jump since 1997, according to recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The bureau’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed that instant coffee prices jumped 20.1% in August 2025 compared to August 2024, bringing the jump for the whole retail packaged coffee category to 20.9%.

Analysts are pointing to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from large coffee-producing countries — including the 50% tariff on coffee from Brazil — as a primary contributing factor for the swift price jump.

Brazil has for decades been the largest coffee supplier to the United States, offering consistently affordable, high-quality coffees for use in blends and soluble coffee products.

Since the Trump tariffs took effect on Brazilian coffees, green coffee buyers have had to either eat the higher costs, pass them down towards consumers and/or attempt to find comparable inventory from other producing countries such as Colombia, Peru or Mexico.

While the tariffs have squeezed U.S. green coffee importers, they’ve also arrived on the back of an extended period of nominally high prices on the coffee commodities markets, with the arabica “C price” surpassing $4 per pound for the first time ever in February 2025.

Historically, there’s been very little data regarding how higher coffee prices among traders and roasters trickle down to consumer prices. A 2007 economic report from the USDA suggests that the longer sustained price shocks persist, the larger the price “pass-through” to consumers.

“On average, a 10-cent increase in the cost of a pound of green coffee beans in a given quarter results in a 2-cent increase in manufacturer and retail prices in the current quarter,” that report states. “If a cost change persists for several quarters, it will be incorporated into manufacturer prices approximately cent-for-cent with the commodity-cost change.”

As of this writing on Sept. 15, 2025, the C price for coffee had surged past $4 yet again, suggesting no immediate relief for coffee buyers.

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