By Tommy Osborne

Coffee Prices

What’s causing the price surge in your morning cup of coffee?

Feb 6, 2026 | 4:48 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – If you’ve noticed your morning cup of coffee has risen in price, you’re not alone. A key staple of many people’s routine has become a bit more of a luxury, and local businesses say it’s due to a sharp rise in coffee bean prices in recent years.

“The price of green beans has risen about 115% on average for our coffee, where our retail sales, we’ve increased our prices about 17%,” said Owning Partner of H and H Roasters Andrew Martin.

“A lot of coffee roasters in the past have been selling their beans anywhere from like $9 to $12 a pound. I’d say in recent years we’ve seen that closer to $13 to $17 a pound,” added Owner of The Open Door Cafe Katrina Wiebe, who is a big customer of H and H Roasters.

Martin explains there are many factors outside of his control that are causing a sharp increase since the pandemic, including but not limited to:

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Dollar values for green beans ranged somewhere from $4 to $6 previously a pound. the green bean prices now or anywhere between, 750, $10 a pound.”

• Political instability in countries that grow coffee beans.
• Climate disasters. “If there is a drought in Ethiopia, for instance, then that whole crop could be very, very reduced, which skyrockets the price,” Martin said.
• Supply chain issues.

“Dollar values for green beans ranged somewhere from $4 to $6 previously a pound. The green bean prices now range anywhere between, $7.50, $10 a pound,” Martin said.

For Martin, margins have grown so thin he says he and his co-owner partner haven’t taken any salaries so they can keep their other employees on board and continue the operation. As for the part of the coffee operation most people see, being the cafes themselves, Wiebe explains there is around a $300+ increase in bean prices alone. That, combined with other factors, has forced her to put some additional costs on the customer.

“Labour has gone up exponentially, and the last few years we’ve seen the Government of Canada raise minimum wage quite a bit, which translates into cost of goods rising, which translates into grocery prices rising, which translates into all sorts of things rising,” Wiebe said.

For local businesses like these, passing costs onto the customer is never ideal, so both Wiebe and Martin say it’s important to focus on what you can control. This involved making everything as efficient as possible, and also getting creative.

“We have have had friends bring us our beans, rather than pay for transportation of the beans, to Prince George. When we know if someone’s coming up from the Lower Mainland, we say, ‘hey, can we throw 600 pounds of beans into the back of your Rav4?'” Martin said.

“One big thing I like to do is get creative in how we’re selling and trying to diversify our revenue streams, and that just makes it so that we can diversify those expenses so that the customer doesn’t feel it,” Wiebe says.

Whether it’s the Open Door Cafe finding more ways to incorporate local artists and artisans to sell additional goods, or the possible addition of a storefront for H and H Roasters to sell their own coffee, diversification has been essential for any business trying to get by as costs rise and margins get thinner.