Executives from leading coffee chains told CBS audiences this week that the industry is confronting sustained cost pressures that are being passed, in part, to consumers. Speaking on Face the Nation and other CBS broadcasts, company leaders described a mix of higher coffee-bean costs, shipping and packaging expenses, and elevated wages that have reduced margin flexibility and prompted menu-price adjustments across store networks.

“We’ve been absorbing as much as we can, but with commodity prices and labor costs elevated we are having to rebalance pricing and menu mixes,” one senior executive said in an on-air interview. Another finance chief told CBS Morning News the company is accelerating hedging for green coffee while testing smaller price changes in markets to limit churn among regular customers.

Those executive accounts align with broader market data. Coffee futures remain well above pre-pandemic levels after dramatic swings tied to weather shocks in major producing countries. Industry analysts point to concentrated supply in Brazil and Vietnam, where droughts, disease and transportation bottlenecks have produced price volatility for arabica and robusta beans. At the retail level, “coffee away from home” prices have risen faster than general food inflation over the past three years, according to trade groups and consumer-price trackers, squeezing households that are already sensitive to higher living costs.

The market implications extend beyond the latte aisle. Coffee chains are large employers and significant drivers of small-business franchising. Sustained menu-price inflation could temper same-store sales growth and encourage substitution toward lower-priced competitors or home brewing. For broader consumer spending, executives and economists alike warned that repeated price increases for frequently purchased items such as coffee can erode discretionary budgets and chip away at brand loyalty.

Policy considerations surfaced during the interviews as well. Executives pointed to logistics and trade frictions — container shortages and higher freight costs — as key contributors to upstream price gains, and called for predictable trade and agricultural policies that support supply-chain resilience. Economists note that persistent food-price inflation feeds into inflation expectations, complicating the Federal Reserve’s task as it weighs the tradeoff between cooling prices and sustaining labor markets.

Longer-term structural trends are shaping corporate strategy. Climate change-related production risks have prompted chains to diversify sourcing, invest in farmer support and increase use of financial hedges. At the same time, rising labor costs are accelerating automation and menu simplification at many outlets. Executives told CBS they are piloting mobile-order pricing strategies and loyalty incentives to retain customers while protecting margins.

For consumers, the near-term outlook is continued price experimentation and occasional menu adjustments. For the industry, the CBS interviews underscored a shift from short-term promotional tactics to a focus on supply-chain resilience, cost-management strategies and product innovation. As one executive put it, the next few years will be “about balancing affordability for customers with sustainable economics for the business,” a test that will reflect both immediate market forces and deeper secular changes in coffee production and retailing.