Hello! I'm a aspiring exporter of coffee from Honduras

[angelenigma8]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Angelica. I am from Brooklyn, NY, who will be shortly relocating to Honduras. I am looking to export Honduran coffee. My husbands family are coffee growers and roasters and I would like to be a distributor of their coffee to the USA and Eastern Europe (where my family is from). :heart:

My background is in Advertising, Marketing and Sales. So when it comes to exporting coffee i'm a complete Newbie but thankful I do have some business savviness from my work experience. :coffeemug:

I want to thank everyone that has contributed to this forum! I have already learned so much just reading various threads, so much so that I decided to register.

So some questions to start, if you don't mind answering :decaf:
1. I am working on a business plan but how do I even start to see who would want to buy my Honduran coffee (which is sooo delicious by the way)?
2. What volumes should I start with?
3. Should I create my own coffee brand and packaging and then resell it, or should I just sell the coffee beans and allow my customers to repackage as they wish?
4. Any other advice on how to start??

All I have right now is some money to invest on exporting this coffee and the connections to farmers and roasters in Honduras. What else do I need?
I'm so much a newbie that I don't even know the right questions to ask. So if I missed anything please feel free to share. ;-)

I know this is asking a lot but if you can get me on the right track I would be eternally grateful!!!!!

Cheers ya'll,

Angelica

 

[namballe]

welcome Angelica
to answer all 4 of your questions above, you will probably have to start by introducing "FREE" samples to prospective buyers/roasters and let them decide whether it is a good product.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Are you asking about importing green or roasted coffee? Maybe both.

I don't know a good way to import roasted coffee, other than create a website and try to draw traffic to it. But it would seem that you will only be catering to low-info coffee drinkers who don't consider freshness a high priority.

As to importing green coffee, there may be others who know enough about the logistics of getting it here and the regulations you'd have to follow. A simpler way would be to contact some of the larger importers, such as Royal Coffee (both in NY and CA), Mercanta, Atlas, Cafe Imports, Inter-American Coffee, to name a few, and let them buy and import. There would be less profit, since they'd get a slice of the pie, but you'd move more coffee w/ less leg work on your part. If you figure out how to import it yourself, and find a good warehouse here to store it, then you have the huge task of finding roasters - probably searching online - contacting them and offering samples; then if those roasters like the samples, you have to arrange freight from your warehouse to them, as well as do all the bookkeeping and accounting. Working with an importer, in my estimation would be best, as most people roasting coffee already are looking to them for greens. Taking the second option of bringing green to the US, finding customers and shipping to them, is somewhat like reinventing the wheel. Good luck whichever path you choose.

 

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome aboard Angelica...