FOB price

The FOB price, which stands for Free On Board, is the amount paid for raw coffee beans the exact moment they are loaded onto a ship in their country of origin. You can think of it as the first part of the final bill that covers the hard work of the farmers, the processing of the coffee fruit, and local transport to the docks, but leaves out international ocean freight and taxes. In specialty coffee, roasteries often share this exact number publicly to prove they are paying fair, sustainable wages that are much higher than standard commodity market prices. Seeing an FOB price attached to your coffee is a strong sign of transparency, showing exactly how much money from that harvest actually stayed in the producing country.