24/02/2026
I have read through the comments on the latest NewZealand Herald article about coffee possibly reaching $10.50 a cup. Some say, “If people won’t pay it, cafés will just lower their prices.” This is absurd.
I have run a small, independent roastery in New Zealand for the last 9 years, and I want to explain what that really looks like from my POV.
Coffee is traded globally. I do not control the raw price and over the past four years green bean prices have surged. Many have doubled by the time they land here in New Zealand. Freight, fuel, power, packaging, and wages have all increased too.
When I roast coffee, I lose 20% of the weight. One kilo of green beans becomes roughly 800g of roasted coffee and that roasted kilo makes about 45 cups. Before milk, cups and lids, wages, rent, equipment maintenance, GST etc, the beans alone in your cup sit around 60 to 80 cents.
Milk adds more cost. Standard milk is around 34 cents per cup. Alternative milks can cost .80 cents to $1 per cup. We often charge $1 extra, which barely covers the difference. Other costs like cups, lids, cleaning, rent, power, equipment, EFTPOS fees, and GST quickly add up.
At a $6 coffee, the profit per cup is tight: roughly $1–$2 for standard milk, and sometimes as little as 50 cents for alternative milk. A small drop in sales, a higher proportion of alt-milk orders, or any unexpected cost can wipe out that margin completely.
Sales are slowing fast as the cost of living rises. In-store traffic is down, and online orders that used to be multiple per day are now often just one per week. A 15–20 percent drop in volume can remove the profit entirely for a small business like ours.
Lowering prices is not a simple solution. If input costs remain high and we reduce prices, margins shrink further. If volume does not increase enough to offset that, we move closer to closing.
This is not about greed. It is about survival in a global supply chain we do not control. Independent, local coffee businesses operate on thin margins. Many of us are already absorbing increases to stay viable.
If you value small, local coffee, your support right now genuinely makes a difference. Without it, we close—and we are closer to that point than most people realise.
☕️“It’s not just the coffee in the cup. It’s everything behind it that makes it cost what it does.”
Jason - Your local bean dealer ☕️
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Read the article via the link below ⬇️⬇️
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/wellington-coffee-roaster-says-a-flat-white-should-cost-1050-under-rational-pricing/3UO2GO6Y6FGQDHXA3T3D53OIYI/
