Purchase unroasted coffee in bulk

[martinezfinca]

Hello all you coffee gurus...

Does anyone here know how I can go about purchasing large amounts of coffee directly from growers outside the US? Say in Costa Rica etc.


Thanks in advance

-LM

 

[CoffeeJunky]

how much of bean are you trying to buy???

 

[martinezfinca]

To be honest, this is my firts attempt towards distributing coffee. I know it's alot of work, but I have been learning (very slowly) on how to roast coffee and packaging. To answer your question, I wanted to start with something like 300lbs or so....I'm on a small budget and with that said, I still need to purchase a drum roaster...so if you know of any good used cheap ones for sale...PLEASE let me know.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

If you search the thread, you will find many answer to your question.

There aren't many good used roasters for sale out there. And 300 pounds are not large quantity to buy directly from the grower. You will spend too much money on shipping.

Let us know what your business plan is and we will give you advise according to your plan. Also your experiences on coffee roasting. What type of roaster you have experience with and how long... What size of roaster are you looking to purchase? What is your budget.

Thanks

 

[eldub]

No offense, but it sounds like you have a lot to learn about the coffee industry before you get to the point of being ready to open a business..

300 lbs of green coffee (two bags) is a very small order. Keep in mind that your coffee will arrive on a pallet and the shipping cost could very well be the same for 1-8 bags.

Where are you located? Try Royal Coffee, Cafe Imports or InterContinental Coffee for quality beans.

 

[martinezfinca]

Thanks for listening...to say the least. So what I have is something very small. I'm an engineer, tired of the corporate world and want to start a small business. With that said, I have a working budget of about 25k. I understand it's not much, but my dreams aren't to open the new Starbucks, but a local distributing warehouse (small) that can cater to local business' in my area. At a glance, my business plan includes a working capital of 25k which will cover 1 year rent of a 1200sqft warehouse (at 600/month), the purchase of used roasting equipment (estimated at $8,500), raw coffee (estimated ?) and a small reserve for misc. My business plan is more in-depth, but so that you can get an understanding of what I'm working with, I spared you my excel macros and spreadsheets.

Any help is appreciated...even if it is a slap in the right direction.

 

[martinezfinca]

eldub,
No offense taken. I'm located in Southern California and simply want to move away from the corporate world. I'm an engineer in search of starting a small business with NO experience, other than enjoying a fresh batch of frenched pressed coffee at my house. I agree with you 100%, I have a lot to learn indeed. I have posted my mini version of my business plan, so please feel free to guide/beat me in the right direction with it. I'n not attempting to build the next Starbucks, just simply want to distribute coffee that I have roasted. I know, I do make it sound a lot less than it actually is, that is not my intention and I mean no disrespect to those of you who have been doing this for years. I just really want to do this with a full heart.

Thanks for listening.

LM

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Martinez,

I think you should start with smaller machine.
I know where eldub is coming from when he say to buy a machine you can grow into but there is few reason to purchase smaller machine. I do not mean Eldub is wrong. Since you have choice to go back to corporate world when things don't fan out.

1. 1 or 2kg machines are much smaller and easier to move it around. If things don't work out, it is easy to sell since they are small and you can move it to wherever with little help.
2. It is much cheaper... You can get one for around 2500-4000 verses you have to spend around 8-12,000
3. When you mess up, it won't cost you 50 dollars at a time.
4. You still can roast, 50 pounds of coffee a day with smaller machine.
5. You can always upgrade when you need bigger machine and have more money to spend.
6. You can spend more money on advertising and promotions

Just my thoughts...

 

[martinezfinca]

I know...I know..I'm being lazy, as I can search the threads..But what machine would you recommend...along with other possible machinery to purchase?

 

[CoffeeJunky]

There are few out there... Let me do another search and I will post up some used machine are for sale around the country. I will post up on Coffee Roaster forum...

 

[martinezfinca]

Greatly appreciate it..!

 

[CoffeeJunky]

just saw 1kg machine for sale on the thread.... check it out... Not bad price at 2500 dollars.... and shipping should be under 200 dollars

 

[eldub]

Keep this in mind........

A 1 kg machine will yield approx. 1.87 lbs of roasted beans per load. If you roast for eight hours straight you could produce a maximum of 4 batches per hour X 8 hours or roughly 60 lbs of beans for sale. (Prolly more like 45 lbs., imo.) If you roast 50 lbs per day for five days, you can produce 250 lbs of beans. But if you are roasting full time, someone else has to be bagging, selling and delivering the product.

With a 5 kg machine, you can roast that same 250 lbs in eight hours. Then you have the rest of the week to do the other tasks necessary to make a business work.

 

[CoffeeJunky]

Eldub is absolutely right but my point is to start the business with low budget and when you get busy, (like selling 200 pound of coffee a week) you can get a new roaster and you won't have hard time selling smaller roaster to someone else without losing too much money on it..... but if you have enough cash available, I would get 10kg machine....

 

[bcotten]

I second the idea that trying to import beans yourself is biting off a too much at one time. Cafe Imports or Royal Coffee NY is a good option. However, even that may be too much investment. It depends on your volume. You can also work out a bulk purchase price (if they don't already have it posted) with smaller companies like Sweet Marias, Coffee Bean Corral, The Captain's Coffee (that's me, full disclosure...), and several others.

I know of several small roasters locally that don't sell enough coffee yet to justify a full pallet of green coffee so they do this to save on their shipping. Depending on where you live, there just might be someone local enough to make it worth a drive to pick up your own green coffee. This way, you can purchase enough to last only a couple months so that you can stay current with harvest seasons as well as mitigate your risk with having a lot of inventory on hand. There's nothing more frustrating than not being able to buy a coffee you really want because you have to move the old stuff you still have on hand.

Good luck!