Specialty coffee trades volume for quality. Hand-picked beans, careful processing, and a riskier harvest for the farmer all cost more, on purpose. A growing practice among specialty farms is Agroforestry: coffee grown under the canopy of protected forest instead of in linear rows. It improves soil, sequesters carbon, and produces a richer bean, but it also means the farmer gives up productive land to a forest that pays them nothing back.
Specialty vs. Commodity
