Market Intelligence
Green coffee trades in a global market with public price references. Understanding how those references work helps any professional buyer interpret a quote more clearly — including ours.
How specialty green coffee pricing works
The ICE "C" contract — known as the C-price — is the most widely used international reference for arabica coffee. Most conventional green coffee, and a good share of specialty coffee, is priced as that reference plus a differential based on quality, origin, certifications, and availability. It's a transparent, liquid mechanism, widely accepted across the industry, and it works well for coffees where the main value sits in the origin and the quality of the cherry as it comes off the mill.
Why barrel-matured coffee isn't priced against the C-price
Green coffee matured in a barrel or through botanical maturation isn't the same category as conventional, freshly processed green coffee. The value doesn't sit only in the origin bean — it sits in a subsequent process — weeks or months of maturation under protocol — that transforms the sensory profile and builds a repeatable identity.
That's why Quercus doesn't price as a differential over the C-price: that mechanism is built to capture the value of an origin and a cherry quality, not of a subsequent maturation process. Pricing that way would reduce the conversation to the raw material, when Quercus's central argument is the process architecture that comes after it.
This doesn't mean the C-price is irrelevant to our buyers — many use it as contextual reference in their own purchasing decisions — but it isn't the basis Quercus builds its own pricing on.
How we price
Each profile's price depends on volume, processing, and export destination, and is discussed directly with our commercial team.
Market intelligence
Context for buyers, not a commodity price board.
Quercus tracks the international coffee market so our partners always have the reference data they need at hand. These figures provide context — they do not set our pricing.
ICE Arabica futures
USD / COP reference rate
Sources and methodology
- ICE Arabica futures: Yahoo Finance
- USD/COP rate: open.er-api.com
Methodology
Arabica futures are quoted in US cents per pound and converted to USD per pound. USD/COP is the mid-market reference rate. Both are refreshed at 20-minute intervals and cached for performance.
This information is not financial advice and is provided only as market context for green coffee buyers.
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