The Economic Journey of Your Morning Coffee If you’re like 62% of Americans, you started your day with a cup of coffee. Few, if any, took a moment during this morning ritual to contemplate or marvel at the complex journey that brought their coffee from farm to their kitchen table.1 Coffee is one of the U.S.’s largest food imports. It wields an economic impact that starts with farmers from Brazil to Vietnam and ends with the barista at your local coffeehouse, involving hundreds of truckers, shippers, roasters and retail workers in between.2 More than 36 hands touch every coffee bean in the journey from bush to cup. And the original bean farmer can expect between 12 and 25 cents for every pound of gourmet coffee sold.3 Like many agricultural enterprises, coffee is grown on large plantations and small farms alike. Harvests are purchased by coffee mills located proximate to coffee growing regions, either directly from the plantation and farm cooperative, or via a trader who buys