Coffee

Importing starts with green coffee that is completely processed and ready for export from the origin country. Typically, shipped in 20 foot containers of 275 to 320 bags (70kb or 60kg) or less. It could also be loaded bulk, therefore enabling more beans to be shipped, lowering the shipping costs on a per pound/kilo basis.

From the USA, specialty coffees are most often purchased by importers or individual roasters via an FOB Contract. FOB (Free On Board) means that the price paid by the buyer includes all of the costs in the exporting country, including processing, inland transport, warehousing, dock fees, export fees and loading the container onto the ship. Ownership passes from the seller to the buyer once the container passes over the rail of the ship. The ships captain prepares the Bill of Lading that you will present to your bank to prove the coffee is now on the ship.

The exporter will need a bank that can handle international interbank transactions. Preferably one that is experienced in export document requirements. If not well established at this type of transaction, the exporter will not want to extend credit to any buyer, but will require payment terms: CAD (Cash Against Documents).

A CAD transaction enables the exporter to have payment deposited into his bank account after presenting to the bank the required documents proving that the coffee purchased by the importer (buyer) meets the specifications in the coffee purchase contract/agreement. The exporter’s bank will determine exactly what documents are required.

These documents may include:

- Ocean Bill of Lading (from the freight liner after the coffee is loaded on the ship)
- Weight Notes to identify the exact content and weight of that content
- Certificate of Origin (issued by the government Customs authority in India)
- Certificate of Fumigation (if required by importing country)
- ICO Certificate of Origin (Approved by the ICO: International Coffee Organization)
- Invoice sent to buyer identify the details of the purchase and $Value.
- Packing List from seller as evidence of the product shipped.
- Other agricultural certificates as dictated in your country

Typically, the exporter will use an Export Broker in the origin country who is expert in these matters and can arrange all of the issues involved in preparing the coffee and the documents for export. If a broker is the seller/exporter, then he will handle all of the required export documentation. The buyer/importer arranges for payment, ocean freight and transport insurance. It’s also the importer’s responsibility for acquiring all import documentation and arrangement in his country.

Of course, finding buyers is the key when importing for resell. For information to identify coffee importers, office coffee service providers and specialty gourmet coffee roasters in the United States, you can purchase a membership list from the Specialty Coffee Association of America or from InfoUSA.com. You can use networking sites like, TradeKey as well.

Note: there are always risks associated with importing. Although the importer may have received samples representing the coffee purchased, in most cases the actual coffee received will match the quality grade, type and source, every coffee lot is different, even from the same region and farm.

There are a few ways to lower this risk. One is to be sure you have a “green coffee contract” modeled after the Green Coffee Association Contract Terms & Conditions. Second, be sure to get an export sample taken directly from the contain prior to its being loaded onto the ship, since once the container is on the ship ownership transfers to the importer (FOB contract terms). Finally, when you purchase is large enough, personally knowing who your buying from and even visiting the country to physically select and monitor the export process is an option.

Author, Steve Josephs is CEO of Intellidon Marketing Solutions, whose family office coffee service business, the Great American Coffee Company, http://www.GourmetOfficeCoffee.com, is a premier Specialty coffee roaster and office coffee service provider in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan business community.

Copyright 2009 The Great American Coffee Company and Intellidon Marketing Solutions, Inc.

All rights reserved. Reprints are permissible when this Copyright statement and website link are included.

Author: Steve Josephs
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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I first remember hearing the word “origin” when I was about 3 years old. My father, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was debating the Origin of Species with my mother over dinner. Like any good Presbyterian he was an evolutionist- not that I knew what origin, evolutionist or Presbyterian meant way back then. The next time the word “origin” became important to me was when I was at University. It was not part of my official studies, but rather a fundamentally important concept relating to my part-time job as a wine waiter at one of Wellingtons new 5 star hotels. We were taught that not only was grape variety important in determining the character of a particular wine, but also the origin- the specific area or appellation where the grapes where grown. A sauvignon blanc grape grown, picked and vinted in Marlborough, New Zealand, would display very different aroma, taste and body compared to the same grape varietal grown in Margaret River, Western Australia. It is for this reason that wine labeling clearly displays the origin, grape type as well as the year that the wine is made. It is to tell the customer exactly what to expect in the bottle. We were taught to pick the difference between a Chardonnay and a Riesling, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Pinot Noir. To start with it was a little difficult to pick the “cut grass, gooseberry, ripe lime” in a Sav-Blanc, or the “Deep ripe plum, soft peppergrass” of a Cab-Sav, but it soon became part and parcel of our lives as wine stewards.

Fast forward to the modern error. These days “Origin” is not only a very important part of my job working with coffee, it is also a word that sometimes wakes me at night, like a the noise of a rusty file scraping over a old, painted blackboard. Origin, in coffee, is not as simple or as transparently honest as many coffee proffesionals would like it to be.

The ICO, or International Coffee Organisation, is somewhat responsible for controlling origin labels on coffee in the fact that any coffee shipped from a growing country must be accompanied by a Certificate of Origin. However… the shipper of the coffee often will fill out the ICO form- adding the origin in as he/she sees fit. The system is based on honesty. If the coffee is Arabica grown in Java, the origin certificate should correctly read “Java Arabica” along with the appropriate grade, weight etc. It should not read “Sumatra Mandehling”, “Bali Arabica” or “Sulawesi Toraja Arabica”. That I am writing this means that it is sadly sometimes fact, not fiction, that mislabeling sometimes intentionally occurs.

Why is this wrong? For starters put aside the fact that it is fraud, misrepresentation and lying, it is more importantly doing huge disservice to the true coffee coming from that origin. Coffee, like wine, has a particular character that is found in the beans growing in a particular geographical area. In fact the flavor of coffee, more so than wine, is almost entirely molded by where it is grown. Take 100 identical seedlings of Typica Arabica and send 25 plants to Aceh, 25 to Central Java, 25 to Flores and 25 to Indonesian Papua. 6 years later the cherries from these trees, ripe and processed, will display vastly different tastes (or cupping characteristics).

To most coffee professionals it is simply a preposterous presumption that anyone would try and mislabel coffee on purpose. Yet, it happens. Sometimes the deceit fools even hardened regulars. Not too many years ago there were two big cases of coffee fraud- one involving fake Hawaiian Kona coffee, the other Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. In both cases the origins were mislabeled because both Jamaica and Hawaii coffees demand a premium on the world market. In both cases the perpetrators were eventually caught out.

Think of it this way- if you were to buy a brand new BMW, you would expect the engine not to have already done 100,000km, and the body not to have been panel beaten to make the car look brand new. If someone tried to pass off such a used vehicle as new- that would be serious fraud.

The more common problem, and one which is beginning to cause real problems for coffee as a quality product, is not the blatant examples of cheating but rather what is call the ‘creeping boundary of origin’ (or CBO). Many years ago coffee origins were perhaps more clearly defined by geographics than they are today. For instance, in Indonesia Mandehling Coffee was picked and marketed from a fairly small area in North Sumatra- thus meaning the characteristics of that coffee were as clear to the drinker as day is to night. These days the geographical or ‘catchment’ area “Mandehling” comes from is 15-20 bigger than what it was 25 years ago. This means that almost by default the characters that the coffee was once famous for- the ripe paprika, fresh cut grass, passion fruit and earthiness are very seldom found to the same degree as coffee from that area today. Its like saying that Italians are the same as Germans. They are not. Lines are drawn on the map- Italians are Italians, Germans are…well…Germans. The French- they have perhaps identified this problem and dealt with it strictly. Not in regards to coffee, but to the labeling of one of their national treasures: Champagne. Only grapes grown and vinted in a particular way, with in a strictly identified area, may be called “Champagne”. Anything else can only be called “Methode Champagne” or similar. Seems pedantic? Coffee should look at this as being part of a solution to a problem which longterm threatens to affect customer perception of coffee in general.

Recently on a trip to coffee savvy New Zealand, a coffee professional was surprised to find just how the problem of labeling origin incorrectly can conspire to creating changes in perception of the customer. He was meeting with an eminent marketing guru who had brought along some material a well known company had put out to support its product. The professional was was not surprised to see “Java” and “Sumatra” on the list of coffee that this company sold. What was surprising was the fact that “Java” was a described as a blend of Guatamalan and Sumatran and “Congo” a blend of Colombian and Sumatran. As in the above European example- Java is likewise not Guatemala or Sumatran!

On the positive side many coffee professionals realise that the future of specialty coffee is going small, not labeling big/expansive origins. Small is easier to define, more difficult for unscrupulous brokers to mislabel. The SCAA’s Cup of Excellence Awards recognise quality origins may be as small as a tiny Finca producing 1000kg of coffee a year. This think small, produce superior beans idea hopefully will result in a better cup of coffee.

In the end thats what it is all about. Despite the complexities of choice faced at a coffee shop, ultimately the customer wants a great cup of Java. However if he wants “Java”it should be the coffee grown on that Indonesian Island, not a mixture of beans from Africa and South America. And if its pure Kopi Luwak that customer is looking for? Well then that is another story altogether.

Alun Evans is a coffee roaster based in West Java, Indonesia. His company Merdeka Coffee, is pioneering relationship coffee with farming communities throughout the country.

Author: Alun Evans
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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If you are thinking of setting up a coffee business, then you should know that now is the best time ever to do it. With more than 500 billion cups of coffee are served around the world every year, it is no doubt that coffee is a lucrative business. Most of the countries in the world today that produce coffee are members of ICO. And most of these countries that produce coffee are situated close to the equator. So if you are in this area, then you have all the advantage to run a successful coffee business. Globally, about 2 billion cups of coffee are drunk every day, and over five hundred billion cups of coffee are consumed each year making it the most popular drink on this planet.

Before you start your coffee venture, you should do some research and find out all the things about coffee. Let me share some facts with you. There are two main types of coffee being cultivated today. And the two main factors which can deteriorate the quality of coffee are oxygen and moisture. There are many tastes of coffee too. The color of coffee that has been roasted to a certain degree in which the characteristics and faults of the coffee are not masked by roast flavor is also an important point to take note. The safety and quality of coffee are also needed to be assured using sensory and physical criteria, and also chemical and microbiological criteria are required.

And to start a coffee business, you will need to get the right coffee machines. You will find that the top espresso machine and coffee brands in the market are Capresso, Saeco, Rancilio, Illy, Lavazza and Gaggia. Popularized by the launch of the Douwe Egberts Senseo machine, many companies now also offer coffee pods, which includes Starbucks. So this is something to note.

Additionally, there are tools such as the French cafe filtre, an espresso machine and a ‘normal’ coffee machine. The decision to buy which machine for your business will depend on each machine having pluses and minuses, and depending on what you care about the most from your coffee. Do not be too disappointed in your machine if this is the first machine you have tried. With experience, you will definitely make good use of your coffee machine. To speed up the process of setting up your coffee business, you can always order online, and you could be enjoying your new commercial espresso machine or coffee grinder within a few days.

With talks about how coffee is healthy for you and all about the great stuff about them, it is no doubt that more and more people are getting interested in coffee. With an estimate that 10 to 12 billion pounds of coffee are consumed worldwide each year, and the unique flavor characteristics of the coffee that produce a vibrant and complex taste to the taste bud, I can assure you that NOW is definitely the best time ever to start your coffee business.

Looking for more info on coffee business? Click for more info on Coffee Cart Business now or go to http://www.business-coffee-service.greenhealthcoffeeclub.com

Christopher Wen is the webmaster for http://www.greenhealthcoffeeclub.com/ where he provides you articles, info, and news on coffee and coffee related info.

Author: Chris Wen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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