Coffee Prices at U.S. Grocery Stores Continue to Rise

Coffee prices at U.S. grocery stores continued to climb September amid higher costs for green coffee due to self-imposed tariffs and other market forces. 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the overall Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.3% from August and 3.0% from a year earlier. Food prices were up 0.2% on the month and 3.1% year over year. Within the grocery aisle, the “nonalcoholic beverages” category — which includes coffee — rose 0.7% on the month and 5.3% on the year.

While those figures showed relative stability, the average price of a pound of roasted, ground coffee reached $9.14 in September, up 3% from $8.87 in August and 41% from September 2024, according to BLS stats.

The overall BLS coffee index — which includes all coffee product types, including soluble (instant) — is up 18.9% year over year. By comparison, inflation for all food and beverage is up 3.1% year over year.

September’s CPI reflects a stack of price pressures that U.S. importers, roasters and retailers have been feeling for months. The “reciprocal tariffs” enacted by Donald Trump in April have resulted in new fees paid by U.S. importers of between 10-50% for coffees from nearly all the world’s growing countries. The 50% tariff on goods from Brazil — the world’s largest coffee producer and historically the largest coffee supplier to the U.S. — has been especially impactful.

The tariffs arrived during a period of sustained historically high prices for green coffee, driven by increased global demand, climate shocks in key growing regions and escalating costs of production, among other factors. 

Two months before Trump announced the tariffs, roasters and traders across the U.S. were already raising retail prices amid shifting market conditions. Warnings that consumer coffee prices could soar have since come to pass, as reflected in the recent BLS report and a separate report on coffee shop prices last month.

A bipartisan “No Coffee Tax” bill in the U.S. Senate has received broad political and industry support, although it remains stalled with no scheduled committee hearings. 

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