#034 - Why the Supermarket Coffee Aisle Looks the Same

Today, Meiero enters a new chapter. One of our co-founders is now based full-time in Europe—raising his family here while building new opportunities on the ground.

As we dive deeper into the coffee value chain, we understand new bottlenecks.

Decades ago, the farthest my great-grandfather could sell his coffee was the Port of Santos. And he took the few days trip to the Port. There, government entities controlled commerce.

Ten years ago, my dad started producing specialty coffee. But his access was limited by scale and focus.

A couple of years ago, we started this journey aiming to sell our family’s coffee. We soon realized we needed to expand our supplier network to maintain consistent quality and justify critical investments at origin.

Now, we enter a new phase. We better understand our clients’ pain points. This obviously relates to distribution to final consumers. The mass market is very concentrated and relies on large chains of supermarkets and marketplaces. Regardless of your location, the coffee shelf at a supermarket always looks the same. These are huge deals between mass brands - like Nescafe, Nespresso, Starbucks and L’Or - and large chains, such as Albert Heijn, Aldi, Spar, Jumbo or Billa.

It is not necessarily bad for consumers. But this setup alienates specialty coffee.

This dynamic has implications along the entire value chain. Our clients are frankly admirable for their passion, attention to detail, and capacity to bring something new to such a traditional industry. And, almost all of them face distribution challenges.

Within ‘distribution challenges,’ there are many themes we will elaborate on in the following newsletters. Perhaps the key challenge is the capacity to offer a great product with stable quality and price for large retailers.

So far, the response to stability has been lower quality. We refuse to believe it has to be this way. We believe transparency and long term relationships are the answer.

‘If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.’

That is where we are focusing during this new phase in Europe.

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Weekly Highlights:

• Coffee Futures KC Price in NY: +0.57% weekly, closing at 310.55 cents/lb.

• Coffee Price in Brazil’s B3 in USD: -0.42% weekly, closing at 393.80 USD per 60kg bag.

• BRL/USD fx rate: +0.81% weekly (USDBRL closing at 5.12).

• Proxy of 20’ container freight prices from Santos to Rotterdam: down ~2.5% weekly.

• Fairtrade Price Floor Revision (Aug 4): Fairtrade International officially raised minimum prices for certified coffee to protect producers against rising costs, lifting washed arabica floor prices to $1.95/lb starting December, 2026.

• Brazil Harvest Delay & Quality Concerns (Aug 3): Cooxupé and regional exporters reported unseasonable rainfall in Minas Gerais slowing fieldwork and harvest pacing compared to last year’s timeline, causing short-term supply tightness and supporting near-term ICE futures.

• ICE Inventory Inflows (Aug 3): The first delivery of Brazilian Arabica coffee presented for grading in Antwerp in months (2,610 bags) led to heavy speculative volume and short-term profit taking in New York futures.

• EUDR Compliance Preparation (August): Major European coffee roasters and international trade houses intensified testing of digital geolocation tracking systems ahead of implementation timelines for the EU Deforestation Regulation.