The first week of each month throughout 2022, our blog will highlight suggested action items and reminders for green-coffee buyers to successfully contract their desired volumes, qualities, and delivery times for the Peruvian harvest season.
March has arrived, continuing with a list of updated offers from several cooperatives and producers in the northern regions of Peru.
Early Harvest Contracts
Although the main harvest for higher elevation coffees is months away, harvesting at lower elevations begins much sooner. Many of these coffees can ship as early as late April or early May, which requires pre-ship samples to be approved by the end of the defined shipping month, although it is preferred to have this approval completed well in advance if possible. If you are looking for coffee to arrive at a domestic port in July of ‘22, contracts are best secured in March or April with shipment booked no later than May.
Sample Preparation
Preparing offer samples from a cooperative can be a tedious process that takes several weeks to arrange. Cooperative management handles the harvest yield and quality projections from their producer members, in addition to monitoring market conditions and production costs which often determine timely delivery of parchment to cooperatives from producer members. Offer samples may not physically be delivered to a buyer’s domestic quality control lab until mid-April but looking ahead will allow cooperatives time to select and send the best representation of an offer sample to their clients.
What to Know
Preparing FOB contracts with cooperatives often requires further guidance from the buyer when developing the terms of agreement for each green coffee delivery. When planning FOB contracts, be prepared to define the following contract terms of agreement:
Certifications: Conventional or Certified?
Cup Quality: What is the range of coffee quality expected?
Volumes: How many bags/containers per month?
Pricing: Does your budget have the flexibility to buffer against the realities of global market conditions?
Shipping & Delivery: What is the desired month for receiving coffee?
We look forward to working with you, and please do not hesitate to call or email sample requests to begin a discussion with the cooperatives participating in sustainability projects with ECOTIERRA.
For an overview of the entire annual calendar of activities, download here.