Buying green coffee, step by step.

Buying green coffee from origin is a sequence of decisions taken in order, each of which fixes one variable so the next can be taken cleanly. It is not a single transaction. A first-time buyer who treats it as one (a price is agreed, coffee arrives) discovers the missing decisions on arrival, when they are expensive to revisit.

The variables being settled are, roughly in order: what the coffee is, how it is assessed, what it costs and on what delivery basis, when it moves, how and when it is paid for, and what happens if it arrives out of specification. The coffee itself (the washed and natural lots described on our coffee page, grown in Amaro) is only the first of these.

The stages below are common to green coffee buying generally. Where Zoebar's own commercial terms sit within them (sample policy, minimum quantity, lead times, accepted payment methods) those are confirmed per enquiry rather than published, for the reason set out at the end of this guide.

The first message does most of the work if it carries the right information. An enquiry that states only that a buyer is interested in Ethiopian coffee produces a slow exchange of clarifying questions; one that states the parameters produces a useful reply.

• The volume you are working toward, even approximately, a bag count, a container count, or an annual figure.
• The processing method you want: washed, natural, or both.
• The grade or cup profile your market requires.
• Your destination port or delivery point, which determines which Incoterms rules are relevant.
• Whether you want a firm offer, a sample, or both.
• Any grading, moisture, packaging or certification requirement your market or your customers impose.

An enquiry is not a commitment, and a reply to one is not a contract. Both sides are establishing whether there is a fit before spending time on samples and paperwork.

Coffee is bought on the cup, so a sample stage is standard practice. Two different samples do two different jobs, and confusing them is a common source of dispute.

The offer sample

Representative of a coffee the seller is offering, often drawn from a previous lot of the same profile. It tells you whether the profile is one you want to pursue. It is not, on its own, the coffee you will receive.

The pre-shipment sample

Drawn from the actual lot allocated to your contract, before it ships. This is the sample that should govern approval. The contract should state explicitly which sample governs, how long you have to approve it, and what happens if that window lapses.

Sample assessment is your own cupping table applying your own protocol. The export grade on the certificate, explained in the grading guide, is a separate regulatory measurement, not a substitute for cupping the lot yourself.

Once a profile is agreed, the specification is confirmed: origin to zone level, processing method per lot, harvest year and window, grade, screen size and tolerance, moisture maximum and its point of measurement, defect count and the standard it was counted under, cup score with the cupper named, and packaging. A complete specification lets a buyer reconstruct the coffee without a phone call.

The quotation then attaches a price to that specification, but a price is only comparable against another price on the same basis. A quotation should state the Incoterms rule and named place, the shipment period, the quantity and tolerance, the currency, and how long the offer stands. Two quotations that differ only in named place are not quoting the same thing.

Green coffee is conventionally traded on standard-form contracts published by trade associations, which carry an established set of definitions, tolerances and arbitration provisions. Buying on a bare purchase order leaves every one of those terms open. The contract records the specification, the quantity and tolerance, the price and currency, the Incoterms rule and named place, the shipment period, the payment terms, and the governing arbitration rules.

The Incoterms rule decides what the price includes and where risk transfers, and for a landlocked origin such as Ethiopia, the named place matters as much as the rule. That is worked through in the Incoterms guide. The documents the shipment will require, and who issues each, are set out in the importer's documentation checklist. Neither is re-explained here; both are prerequisites to a contract you can actually perform.

Payment terms allocate the gap between the seller's exposure to non-payment and the buyer's exposure to non-delivery. The instruments used in the trade (advance payment, letters of credit, documentary collections, open account) sit on a spectrum between those two, and are covered in the payment terms guide. They are agreed in the contract, separately from the Incoterms rule.

Shipment is contracted against a period, not a date. A seller controls when a container is handed to the carrier; a seller does not control the vessel schedule, a transhipment, or the destination port's working. The harvest and shipping calendar sets out the sequence and its realistic timing against the crop year.

On arrival, quality and weight are determined at whichever point the contract names (origin, destination, or an independent inspection) and any claim runs under the contract's arbitration rules. A shipment that arrives within specification closes the transaction; one that does not is resolved by the terms agreed before it moved, which is the entire reason those terms are agreed first.

The sequence above is the general one. Zoebar owns its washing station in Amaro, which places cherry intake, processing, drying and lot formation under direct control; how that record is carried to the bag is on the traceability page, and the stage-by-stage operations are on the process page.