Are you looking for a coffee supplier for your cafe, restaurant, or office? With so many options available, it can be difficult to determine which supplier will best meet your needs. There’s a rule of thumb in choosing the right coffee supplier: It goes beyond just ‘choose.’ 

Rule 1, don’t pick based on which one you find first. Remember that choosing a coffee supplier means entering a new partnership that might last for a long term. It’s wise to keep your options open to make sure you find the right coffee supplier that matches your expectations in terms of price, quality, reputation, and customer service. 

Here are the key factors that help you when selecting a coffee supplier.

Quality of Coffee Beans

The quality of the coffee beans is the most important factor to consider when choosing a coffee supplier. In executing your plan to serve high-quality coffee, look for coffee suppliers who source their beans from reputable coffee-growing regions.

Sumatra island of Indonesia is a perfect example of a reputable coffee-growing region that continuously produces world-class quality green beans coffee in the global market. Countless coffee plantations are spread throughout this island due to perfectly structured conditions for growing green coffee beans at the highest quality. No surprise that this island has become a dependable source of world’s class green coffee beans for most coffee suppliers worldwide. 

It’s worth considering initiating a QC (Quality Control) inspection with your team to the location if it is possible. It is to ensure the quality of green coffee beans. In executing a cupping, 8.25 grams of coffee beans samples are enough for each cupping.

The Coffee Beans' Freshness

The freshness of the beans is also a crucial factor to consider. Look for coffee suppliers who distribute the freshest green coffee beans directly from the coffee plantation. If you’re just starting to import green coffee beans, it’s wise to know these key factors before dealing with your transaction. One, coffee harvest season. Two, the colors of the green coffee beans.

Color is an ideal indicator of freshness when it comes to green coffee beans. The freshest green coffee beans have a diverse range of green colors. It can be light green, grayish-green, or bluish-green depending on the varieties. Although it might be different shades of green, you need to be aware of green coffee beans’ discoloration. When you spot green coffee beans turning into other colors like yellow, brown, or black, it unmistakably marks the freshness degradation. 

Other than that, consider the coffee harvesting season. Especially if you’re planning to purchase single-origin green coffee beans. Just keep in mind that specific geographical regions have their own harvesting seasons. For example, coffee harvesting season in Sumatra Island happens around November-March, while Java is around June-October. Research this crucial information to get the newly-harvested green coffee beans. You can expect to get the freshest green coffee beans in a month after the harvest period, immediately after the green coffee beans have finished processing.

Price of the Coffee Beans

coffee price

Some of the coffee roasters often operate on thin margins. In fact, it’s a field full of ongoing expenditures, from rent cost to operational cost. Based on this solid reason, choosing a coffee supplier that offers competitive pricing on a global scale is crucial for your business. 

Stay within your budget to compete with the rest of the roastery is the fundamental of your success in the coffee business. 

When you import green coffee beans by container, the discount is automatically counted in your transactions. We are talking about 30% more margin, compared to purchasing the green coffee beans domestically. Other than that, you can expect a lower price with our simplified supply chain. No need to pay extra fees for the middlemen, we remove them from our supply chain for you. Literally! just our farmer, us and you. 

Be careful of extremely low-priced green coffee beans. There are a lot of unreliable coffee suppliers out there that are sugar-coating the low-quality green coffee beans as the high-quality ones. The bad quality and low-priced green coffee beans just cost you extra when no one wants to consume bad-tasting coffee. 

Payment Terms Used in the Transaction

Beware of transferring funds to non-reliable coffee suppliers. Nobody likes the idea of not receiving the goods they’ve ordered and paid for. The risk of fraud is just getting higher with unsafe payment terms. 

If you’re a new player in the coffee industry and highly anticipating the risks that might arise when importing green coffee beans, it’s highly recommended to choose only the safest payment terms. Once you decide your payment terms, make sure your coffee supplier is willing to work closely with you to guarantee the safety of your transaction process. 

It’s worth considering if your coffee supplier offers flexible payment terms. Flexible payment terms are siding of benefiting both parties by securing the transaction process. For example, DP payments. As a customer, you just need to pay the agreed DP (Down Payment). Full payment is only necessary once your coffee supplier issues the export-import documents and sends it to you. Other than that, you can consider other secure payment terms like L/C (Letter of Credit).

Sustainability in the Coffee Supply Chain

coffee sustainability

Sustainability is becoming an increasingly important factor for many businesses, and coffee suppliers are no exception. Today, it becomes a fundamental aspect to consider in every business sector. Look for suppliers who are committed to sustainability both for nature and people who grow green coffee beans for their business. 

Check if your potential coffee suppliers are really committed to this crucial principle. These coffee suppliers only selectively source their green coffee beans from sustainable coffee farmings that produce 100% natural coffee. This means that there are no harmful substances in coffee farming. Instead, the farmers choose to regularly maintain the traditional practice. 

Other than that, empowering people behind green coffee beans is a must. A trustworthy coffee supplier works closely with their coffee farmers and helps to empower them through fair-trade practice, training, and more decent ways. When the farmers are paid based on fair-trade standards, the farmers are able to improve both their living standards and the coffee farming conditions.

Well-Performed Customer Service

Unluckily, you’re only able to check the overall performance of your customer service once the purchasing process is complete. Positively, there are always other ways to double check.

When initiating a first conversation with your potential coffee supplier, check how responsive they are. Although it’s not completely solved your concern, fast-response from them still counts as a good start. While you check the responsiveness, you might also want to check the reviews and ratings of these coffee suppliers. Just type it in your favorite search engine. Don’t rush, spend your time scrolling to carefully check the reviews and ratings. Whether it’s positive or negative, these reviews and ratings unmistakably become your guides in making the right decision.

Indonesian Green Coffee beans & Kopi Luwak Coffee Supplier

indonesian coffee beans

After doing in-depth research about choosing the best coffee supplier, you might step further to choose 1 among all your options. Besides the 6 factors mentioned above, it is also highly recommended to consider the year of establishment. Because long-established coffee suppliers have experienced assisting their customers compared to newly established companies. 

Look at Wallacea Coffee which has been in the coffee trade for over 20 years. Based on our experience, we are able to provide top-notch green coffee beans as well as handle complex customs clearance. For this reason, long-established coffee suppliers are more reliable if issues occur during the distribution process.

Try our BYOC (Build Your Own Container) system and source Indonesian specialty green coffee beans directly from Indonesian coffee plantations today!

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