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Colombia’s FNC Launches Direct Trade Initiative for Small-Quantity Shipments

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In an effort to promote direct trading of Colombian coffees and increase income for individual producers, the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) has launched an initiative allowing registered exporters to ship coffee in small quantities.

The group says the online registration process for each shipping order takes less than five minutes and simplifies the quality control process and the payment process and ensures direct delivery to customers abroad.

In accordance with International Coffee Organization standards, the program allows for the shipment of up to 60 kilos of green coffee through several authorized private shipping companies and international agencies, while also allowing for smaller shipments of roasted coffee, instant coffee and coffee extract. To put that in perspective, the standard bag size for Colombia coffee is 70 kilos.

The FNC has set up a quick Q&A for exporters interested in the initiative, while directing inquiries to [email protected].

Comment

2 Comments

Alfonso Alberto

This is a misleading title. We all should be more careful when using the term “direct trade” because it’s been overused and debased.

Another way to read this news goes like this:

The FNC has simply designed one more burdensome mechanism to capture the 6 USD cents per pound “coffee contribution” (contribución cafetera) in every shipment via courier that exceeds 1 kilo of green coffee. Until few weeks ago it was possible to send green coffee samples over 1 kilo with almost no hassle (and without paying the contribution). It’s not hard to understand that many small or medium specialty coffee roasters around the world do not have a sample roaster and actually demand 2 or 3 kilo coffee samples.

So how exactly does more red tape “promote direct trading of Colombian coffees and increase income for individual producers”?

Diego

I agree with the previous comment and would like to add that capping small shipments at 60 kg (50 kg for roasted coffee) is ridiculous. The cost of shipping 1kg of coffee for these volumes with the authorized private shipping companies from Colombia to Europe is around 8-9 usd/kg in the best of cases, leaving importers very little margin to make or forcing them to underpay producers. If exporters/importers want to benefit from cheaper fares that come with higher volumes, they have to deal with a sea of red tape and the additional costs and time these demand. I don’t see the benefit to small producers, roasters or the industry in general.

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