Would you pay $12 for a cup of coffee

The NY Post just reported on Cafe Grumpy which is serving Ethiopian coffee for $12/cup.  Now, it sounds delicious, but $12/cup...really?  They say that a lot of the cost comes from expensive processing and the coffee is a  rare coffee called Nekisse from Neji Ethiopia.   But, I do wonder how much they paid the farmer for the coffee.  Maybe they paid them very fairly!

Even though it is rare, lets keep in mind that most coffee here is hand-picked (one thing they make mention of as making it more expensive), and is grown on small farms where it is harvested by families.  Some is sun dried, but others are not.   Much of it is grown interspersed with fruit trees and other bushes which help to give the coffee distinctive notes and flavors.  Much of what they are talking about with this coffee is true of most Ethiopian coffee, except that it may have distinct flavors, these coffee cherries never touch the ground and there is a more extensive brewing system they use.  But, I still wonder, what did the farmer get paid here?

Now, if a farmer is selling his coffee to a cooperative which is fair trade, he may be getting $1.41 per pound.  This means he makes less than $290/year off of his 5 acre farm growing coffee. Growing coffee probably makes up about 70% of his total income for his entire family. If we take a pretty conservative estimate, we could assume that you get maybe 20 (6oz) cups of dark coffee from 1lb of green beans.  Its not hard to see an inequity here, even when the farmers are getting a "fair" price that makes life more sustainable.

This news has been spread all across Ethiopia blogs and news outlets and continues to lead to the view that Americans can afford anything and have a limitless supply of cash to spend on frivolous things.  Afterall, if the typical Macchiato here in Ethiopia costs less than 30 cents, what would you think about rich Americans who are willing to drop $12 on a cup of coffee that originated in your homeland.   Now, I know it is NYC, yet its hard for someone to understand that!

A few weeks ago, an Ethiopian guy said to me, "I've heard in America that people will spend 40ETB for a cup of coffee ($3 US) which sounded unbelievable to this guy who makes less than 800 ETB ($60 US) per month.  He said, "Wow, Americans are so rich."  Now, imagine explaining to him a $12 US cup of coffee!