Importing green coffee to the United States

[Yolima]

Hello everyone!

I am from Colombia and I am hoping my post is not going to be inappropriate or out of place, please let me know if this is not the place for it.

I come from a family of coffee farmers, my parents and most of my uncles and even my grand parents have been growing coffee for their whole lives and my family has been on the business for several generations now. I grew up in a coffee farm and maybe that is why coffee means much more than a good drink to me, it means the result of the hard work of wonderful people who believe and love what they do.

We have been selling our coffee locally in Colombia during all this time, and since the coffee chain is so wide, the last consumer of our coffee has no idea we produce it and the farmers that work for it don't get a fair compensation for their hard work. Now I am in the states working on getting my family's coffee as well as other Colombian farmer's coffees directly to the roasters here, and wanting to be a strong connection between farmers and roasters. I want the roasters to have a guarantee product that has been fairly traded and I want the farmers to be compensated as they deserve.

I am in the process of becoming an importer in the US and have already set up a legal company and registered with the FDA, however It has been difficult for me to find out which other licences or permits do I need or finding some place where I can get advice and information about the best way of doing this process. If someone has an idea of what else should I look into or where can I find help I would really appreciate it.

I will leave some pictures of our farm and coffee for you bellow!


Thank you!

 

[Mr.Peaberry]

Hi Yolima,

This is about as good an introduction as one could have, and perhaps it would have been appropriate to make this introduction in the Introductions thread, but I'm not going to hold that against you!

Having said that, I love the pictures of the family farm, and I welcome having you here and hope you participate and share more with us. There are some members here who may be able to answer your questions, so I wish you well.

Cheers,

Peaberry

 

[Bereka]

Hello Yolima,
Welcome to coffee forums. You and I almost share the same background. I am a third generation in coffee farming business. I came to this forum to get more help a while ago, and I found out its the best forum filled with helping forum members. I now have Import license and imported our specialty grade coffee twice to the states. It looks like you already have the required licenses, you need to open LLC. you also need to contact logistics company to do the shipping and customs for you. They will guide you what type of bond you need for customs. The fda website is also helpful. I suggest you get a logistics company that is familiar to where you are importing.
Its very important to have at least your coffee evaluated for its quality, according to SCAA and then find potential buyers here in the US. As for warehousing, I used the Annex coffee warehouse this time. They are FDA approved and they also can ship out your order for your buyers. One of our forum member gave me a tip to where to warehouse before and sent me the below link

Continental Terminals, Coffee Warehouse, Cocoa Warehouse

There are also more discussion on the below link

http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/business-business-b2b/4838-how-import-coffee.html

I hope this helps

 

[Yolima]

Thank you very much for the advice Bereka! I have an LLC and I am registered with FDA, so for what I understood that is the only licensing I need? I have also a company that is going to do the logistics and customs for me but my issue right now is that they say I need to be registered with CBP and I have been unable to find out how to do that.

I will keep in mind the information about warehousing, it is very helpful,

Thank you!

 

[friedcoffee]

Even I am also thinking about entering in the coffee export business. I live in India and about 70% of coffee is exported to other countries. The major exporter is of course US. Do tell me if you need to get coffee from here.

 

[ensoluna]

this might help.
please contact Theta Ridge coffee in South Bend, In. and talk to Kevin (owner).
he is a medium size green bean importer, but he also provide services of logistics, clearing customs, warehousing...etc

Example : if you have a lot of roasters in USA who wants to buy your coffee, but you are not familiar with importing your coffee into USA and customs, inland freight to coffee warehouse...etc. This company will do all that for you. Even they will palletize your coffee and ship to your customers.

from Guatemala Port Santo Tomas to Theta Ridge warehouse (C.I.F.), it costs $4000 for one 20' container which comes out to $0.09 per pound if you pro-rate it.
to me, it is a reasonable rate, specially if you import specialty beans/micro lots, it gets even cheaper per pound.

thanks
Alex from Ensoluna

 

[Mr.Peaberry]

...if you import specialty beans/micro lots, it gets even cheaper per pound.

thanks
Alex from Ensoluna

Am I reading this correctly Alex? Specialty beans get a preferred rate not a premium added? Seems counter intuitive to me, just sayin'...

Peaberry

 

[ClasicCoffee]

Hello Yolima,
I am also in process of starting my coffee import business. I did some research and may be below two points may be helpful.
Flexport site explaining how to import coffee:
wwwdotflexportdotcom/learn/how-to-import-coffee-into-the-united-states/

Also i would recommend you visit local chapter of SBA and seek advice from experts who can clarify if you need to registered with CBP
wwwdotscoredotorg

Best Wishes for your new venture.

PS: Being a new member, not allowed to provide link and hence used word "DOT"