Master the Art of Green Coffee Sales: Introduction

By Bram De Hoog

Each year when the harvest comes around many challenges arise, from preparing the washing station to finding enough workers - there is always plenty to do. In the end, it all ties back into one major objective: who will buy my coffee and for what price?

Vuna coach & ex green coffee buyer Bram De Hoog

The dreamland of green coffee seller

Now imagine that you will never have to ask this question again.

Picture a world in which you have more demand than coffee available and that you can set your own prices. Your coffee is sought-after all the way from coffee shops to importers - everyone wants a piece of it. This is the coffee seller’s dreamland. Here at Vuna, we have set out a plan for you at World of Coffee Copenhagen as the first step to help you achieve just that.

A stable demand for your coffee is the bedrock for any sustainable business. It will allow you to invest with confidence and share the benefits with your community. Furthermore, it can create strong bonds that transcend borders and cultures and give you the recognition you deserve. When you become a mainstay in a coffee roaster’s line up and not only them, but also their clients such as cafés and hotels want to continue to drink your coffee. That is when you can start to think about scaling up production or investing further in quality.

The dreamland is not easily achieved, and once reached you still need to continue to deliver. But manifesting it is the first step.

Building a Lasting Coffee Business: Understanding the Industry and Establishing Your Brand

In coffee there is no overnight success, farms are built over generations and relationships can take years to build before they can withstand the turbulence of our dynamic industry. The first step is to understand the coffee industry at various stages such as retailing, roasting and importing. First of all, it’s important to match the types of coffee you can supply to the different types of clients out there. To reach the clients effectively you must understand the intricacies of retailing, roasting and importing in different countries and how they may differ. One must be able to put all the pieces in places for you to start effectively selling.

Finally, you build your brand for the audiences you are hoping to reach. In an increasingly competitive specialty green coffee landscape it is important to stand out. Starting to think like a brand, rather than just a green coffee supplier can help you to reach an unique position.

Through these steps you can start to pave the way towards the green coffee seller dreamland. Once you put these preparations in place it will be time to get to work. To successfully prepare you may need to visit several trade shows to get a good understanding of each market, before you even start handing out samples. As with growing coffee, the soil needs to be prepared, holes dug and rainfall imminent before you can plant trees. Sales is no different, planting at the wrong time or in unprepared soil will likely lead to a big loss of the planted seedlings.

In my career many of the first sales were because of great timing. Sooner or later a client will be in need of a new or different coffee. For this to be your coffee you need to first of all be on their radar and secondly able to deliver. On the contrary, even if you have the best coffee at the best price, a client with a full warehouse is unlikely to purchase it. Timing may differ per type of client too. Importers generally buy before and during the harvest and roaster just after it. Aligning your efforts with those timelines can give you that edge you need to build your dreamland.

Join Us at WoC Copenhagen: Market Entry Strategies and Insights

At the end of this month we will take a deep dive into this topic at World of Coffee in Copenhagen. During our workshop at Green Coffee Connect we will do a live exercise to build a market entry strategy for the Scandinavian market. Join us here to get a taste of what you may learn in the “Seller’s Guide to Specialty Coffee to Specialty Coffee Markets” course. In this course we break down the specialty coffee market and how it functions in different regions across the world.