Communicating with producers

[hellba]

Dear All,

First of all, thank you for this forum full of resources.

I am interested in knowing how you, roasters, communicate with producers. I'm sending them email (translated with google) but I have very few answers. Do you have any tips regarding this issue?

Best.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Hey Hellba,

Welcome aboard.
There are many people in the forum buys coffee directly from the growers but that is not very common practice since it is difficult to get and also not always prices is cheaper.

I think if you can let us little more details on what you are trying to accomplish by contacting them, you might actually get responds from the coffee growers or their represents.

Welcome again.

 

[hellba]

Hi CoffeeJunky,

Thank you for your quick answer.

I understand the issues and the experience required for direct trade. My idea is to talk with producers, and if I like their philosophy (and they like mine), then to see which is his exporter and ask him to ship some coffee here in Switzerland. It's just a test and I would not take the risk to bring the coffee here by myself, of course. But I want to have a direct contact with producers.

 

[uyu]

Hi CoffeeJunky,

Thank you for your quick answer.

I understand the issues and the experience required for direct trade. My idea is to talk with producers, and if I like their philosophy (and they like mine), then to see which is his exporter and ask him to ship some coffee here in Switzerland. It's just a test and I would not take the risk to bring the coffee here by myself, of course. But I want to have a direct contact with producers.

Hellba,

I am living in Rwanda, working in Coffee shop, which started to export coffee this year, but what I can tell you here the growers of coffee are the small cooperatives or individual who are not interested in wholesales or export. So if you need more information in this region I am ready to provide them.

 

[hellba]

Thank you very much Uyu for your offer.

The core of my question here is to know how other roaster communicate with producers. Which is the most efficient way you found. Email, phone, facebook? And how do you deal with the language barrier.

Thank you in advance for your answers!

Best,
Hellba

 

[ensoluna]

The core of my question here is to know how other roaster communicate with producers. Which is the most efficient way you found. Email, phone, facebook? And how do you deal with the language barrier.

hi hellba,
I am one of the producers (two farms and specialty coffee exporting company) in Guatemala.
I use everything, most common is email and Skype for daily communication. for international business, I do not use my hand phone, I just use Skype phone to call them (way cheaper). our company has two facebook. facebook.com/ensolunacafe which is mainly for Spanish customers & Coffee school we do. facebook.com/ensolunausa which is mine. mostly I post my trips (related to coffee) and few other interesting articles and photos, this is personal facebook in a way.
www.ensoluna.com is our website that explains about our company.
Even with language barrier, YOU CAN ALWAYS USE GOOGLE TRANSLATOR to translate any web pages to your own language, including emails.

So, personally, I have had very few language barriers in my coffee business (except one customer in Russia and two customers in China who use their own language only). but still I can translate and read and reply back in their own language. Others, they can all read and write english. Of course web translators are not perfect, but it is sufficient enough to do business.

 

[hellba]

Hi Ensoluna.

Thank you very much for those insights. I navigate on your website, I like it very much.