The Fourth Wave - Part 5: Importing Coffee
Let’s turn our examination to the process of importing coffee shall we? When you import coffee, you need to fill out a lot of paperwork to satisfy the US Customs and the FDA. Also, you need to secure the funds for the freight itself. When the box arrives in the United States, it’s yours. It doesn’t matter if it’s full of rocks, stumps or dead people – it’s yours. There are no guarantees. When you purchase through a broker, quality and delivery are guaranteed. If you don’t like it, they will pick it up at no charge and replace it until you do. My broker at times has had to honor this guarantee.
You normally fill a box of coffee for the economics to work out. There are things like piggy backing and other creative ways, but for the most part you have to fill a box. A box or container equates to 37,500 pounds of coffee. That’s a lot of coffee! So, are these people really directly importing the coffee? I don’t know, maybe they are. If you’re an importer, maybe you don’t need to fill a box of coffee. Maybe you can put it on an airplane or on somebody’s yacht.
Each chop of coffee has its own individual series of numbers that are stenciled on each bag. Those numbers must coincide during FDA and customs inspections. Maybe these third wavers are not only roasting rare unknown coffees from unknown lands, but maybe they’re importers too.
Ask yourself if it makes economic and ecological sense for a microroaster to use its limited time and resources cruising around the globe importing coffee at great personal risk and expense? Importing coffee is another business in itself. And for the most part, it seems to be all based on volume.
I am just a specialty coffee roaster and I roast approximately 40 containers a year and I am not an importer! I’m a specialty coffee roaster! I receive samples, when the new crops are offered, from many importers that I’ve had relationships with for over 20 years. I cup them vigorously to assure our customer the highest quality.
So, I concentrate my efforts on cupping, roasting, service and helping independently owned coffee houses grow their business. This is what we have been doing for nearly three decades now. This is not new; this has been going on for a long, long time.
You normally fill a box of coffee for the economics to work out. There are things like piggy backing and other creative ways, but for the most part you have to fill a box. A box or container equates to 37,500 pounds of coffee. That’s a lot of coffee! So, are these people really directly importing the coffee? I don’t know, maybe they are. If you’re an importer, maybe you don’t need to fill a box of coffee. Maybe you can put it on an airplane or on somebody’s yacht.
Each chop of coffee has its own individual series of numbers that are stenciled on each bag. Those numbers must coincide during FDA and customs inspections. Maybe these third wavers are not only roasting rare unknown coffees from unknown lands, but maybe they’re importers too.
Ask yourself if it makes economic and ecological sense for a microroaster to use its limited time and resources cruising around the globe importing coffee at great personal risk and expense? Importing coffee is another business in itself. And for the most part, it seems to be all based on volume.
I am just a specialty coffee roaster and I roast approximately 40 containers a year and I am not an importer! I’m a specialty coffee roaster! I receive samples, when the new crops are offered, from many importers that I’ve had relationships with for over 20 years. I cup them vigorously to assure our customer the highest quality.
So, I concentrate my efforts on cupping, roasting, service and helping independently owned coffee houses grow their business. This is what we have been doing for nearly three decades now. This is not new; this has been going on for a long, long time.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home