Honduras Coffee: Need information on importing coffee into the United States

[Gigi]

Hello Everyone,

I just joined the forum! I'm from Baltimore and my husband is from Honduras and owns acres of land in Honduras with coffee fields on it. Currently, our family and the community is growing the coffee and selling it to the buyers in the city, who then export it to Europe. We're trying to expand this into the US. Does anyone here have any experience in importing coffee from Honduras into the United States? I'd like to get some tips and info. Also, if anyone knows of buyers who are looking for great quality Honduran coffee, contact me!

 

[AdventureCopan]

Welcome Gigi! We have a farm in Honduras as well! Ours is in Santa Rita, Copan Ruinas, HND. Our company is USA (Texas) & HND. Our farm is still young, but we are working on export options right now. I'd love the hear anything you've learned and we can share as well.
You can send us a pm and I'll shot you my contact info!
-Daniel Kent

 

[ensoluna]

Hello Everyone,

I just joined the forum! I'm from Baltimore and my husband is from Honduras and owns acres of land in Honduras with coffee fields on it. Currently, our family and the community is growing the coffee and selling it to the buyers in the city, who then export it to Europe. We're trying to expand this into the US. Does anyone here have any experience in importing coffee from Honduras into the United States? I'd like to get some tips and info. Also, if anyone knows of buyers who are looking for great quality Honduran coffee, contact me!

hi gigi.
how are you?
I have a green bean exporting company in Guatemala. We export to Europe, Taiwan and Australia.
how many container (20' container) a year do you process?
and what is your coffee quality and varietals?
thanks
alex from Ensoluna

 

[Bereka]

Hi Gigi
I live in Silver Spring MD and my family owns coffee farms in multiple location, and has been in export business in Ethiopia.
I was in the same situation as you are now when I first joined coffee forum last year. There are lots of resources and helpful forum members in this forum. This website might help and Let me know if you need more info.
https://learn.flexport.com/importing-101/

 

[Gigi]

Hi Gigi
I live in Silver Spring MD and my family owns coffee farms in multiple location, and has been in export business in Ethiopia.
I was in the same situation as you are now when I first joined coffee forum last year. There are lots of resources and helpful forum members in this forum. This website might help and Let me know if you need more info

I'm trying to test my coffee right now,do you know any labs near Baltimore and what score do you think is a good score

 

[Bereka]

Try Samuel at Keffa Coffee
Established in 2006 by Samuel Demisse, Keffa Coffee is based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Samuel was born and raised in Ethiopia, in the small town of Agaro. At a young age, Samuel learned coffee and the coffee industry from his father.
Samuel placed Third at the 2015 United States Cup Tasters Championship, 4th in 2014, and was Second Place Winner of both the 2011 and 2013 United States Cup Tasters Championship. Samuel is a Licensed Q-Grader, and an Assistant Q-instructor. Keffa Coffee is a member of the Specialty Coffee Association of America, Roasters Guild, and Barista Guild of America.

Established in 2006​

 

[Gigi]

What importer do you use,and what's the prices if you don't mind?

 

[slurp]

OK, if you have coffee to offer lets start with the basics.

1. What type of coffee is it? Robusta or Abracia
2. What screen sizes do you offer?
3. What process method do you use? washed, partial, natural
4. What altitude is your beans grown?
5. Is your coffee organic?
6. how many kilos do you produce a year?
7. Do you have a export licenses form the FOB country? This is the big one!

Before you run to some lab for testing, you should be talking the basics. That link that was listed was for stuff from China and so forth. Importing food into the USA and out of other countries is not quite the same.

 

[Gigi]

Coffee type Catuali & Catimore,washed natural,altitude 1800, 85% quality I don't have exports license and as far as the other questions I am working on it.

 

[slurp]

If you not have an export license you may want to consider selling to a local distributor. If I buy 100 Kilos from you and send you the money and you can not get the beans to me I will not be very happy.

So before you go any further you need an export license.

 

[DiegoFjord]

I will be following this thread closely and providing what info I can as I am also going through the process of importing green coffee from Central America. My friend who operates the farm is working on export papers. I am importing small quantities (maybe 100kilo/mo.). My biggest concern is being caught in regulatory grey-area since I am not a registered/licensed business and not profiting from the importation of the green coffee.

 

[Gigi]

Fair enough? How long does it take to get an import license and is it complicated to get it.

 

[AdventureCopan]

Getting the export license in Honduras can be hard and complicated as many business things there. You would also need an import license stateside as well if I'm not mistaken. We plan to work with the local co-op near our farm in HND for exporting and hopefully partner with a importer stateside to start. As time goes on we will work towards getting our own licenses.
-Daniel Kent

 

[Bereka]

You can get business licence from sdat md in Baltimore
SDAT: Checklist for new businesses
You can use FDA approved warehouses such as continental terminal, Annex in Oakland, The green Room in Seattle

 

[ensoluna]

I joined this forum because i want to sell 1 container of coffee.

USA customers' buying season is over, long time ago. they should be receiving their coffees from different countries by now.
HOWEVER,
only customers who can buy one container from you are below customers and contacts. They are big enough to buy them right now if you offer really good pricing.
they know me, so if they ask you where you got the contact from, you can give them my info (which you can find it from my profile)

ECOM Trading - Adam Kline [email protected]

CafeImports - Jason Long [email protected]

Costco - Michael Giudice [email protected]

Klatch - Mike Perry [email protected]

Royal coffee - Peter Radosevich

[email protected]​

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!

​

​