Transportation companies in the United States (US) have reported a surge in thefts of truck loads of green coffee beans as prices climb to all-time highs, according to a Reuters report.
The issue was discussed by market participants over the weekend in Houston, where the US National Coffee Association held its annual conference.
The US is the world’s largest importer of the commodity and imports nearly 100 per cent of what it consumes with mostly trucks transporting the bags from ports to roasting plants.
“There were dozens of thefts in the last year, something that would happen only rarely in the past,” says Todd Costley, Logistic Sales Coordinator for Hartley Transportation, a freight broker in Pembroke, New Hampshire.
Theft of coffee has been reported in origin countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, usually in farms where the beans are temporarily stored after the harvest. Reuters says isolated sites like these are more vulnerable, with armed men reportedly taking 500 bags of coffee worth around US$230,000 from a farm in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in January 2025.
In the report, Reuters says the thefts in the US have been committed by organised gangs who disguise as transportation companies. Costley says the fake companies attempt to secure small contracts from importers by offering better prices or immediate availability of trucks.
“Importers should be careful about who they hire,” he says. “Once they get the coffee, they disappear.”
Each truck load carries approximately 44,000 pounds (19,958 kilograms) of green beans, which at current market value is worth an estimated US$180,000. Some market participants believe the organised gangs then try to sell the beans to smaller roasters, which are feeling the pain from record-high prices.
Meanwhile, some importers have started attaching tracking devices to the coffee bags, in an effort to protect their shipments.
