Have you ever wondered what coffee importers do besides taking our hard-earned money? Well if you did, this episode is for you.
In my experience a good relationship with a coffee importer is vital to create a successful coffee portfolio.
In this episode I interview Jean Heylen from 32 Cup (Tree to Cup), one of the coffee importers I use in my European business.
I had the chance to meet him in person at the 2015 World Aeropress Championship where he stood next to me when Green Plantation won the title.
I can’t help thinking that perhaps … he was our lucky charm.
More importantly, I loved how open he was to discussing the sensitive issues we roasters sometimes have with importers.
I believe that he gives an excellent insight into how importers think and what kind of weapons to use against them. 🙂
In this episode, Jean will tell us how the coffee gets from its origin to our roasters.
I asked him his opinion on direct trade–when roasters buy coffee directly from the farmer. He will give you the good and the bad aspects of this kind of relationship.
I tortured him with questions about samples: when is he happy and when he’s not happy to send out samples to his customers.
If you decide to go and source your own coffee, listen to him explain his ways of finding gems in the coffee-producing world.
I get so many requests for helping to unload green coffee, and finally I had the chance to ask how farmers and producers can contact a coffee importer who can help them to sell their coffee.
Finally Jean will reveal what is the ideal customer relation for a coffee importer.
There is much more, so go and listen NOW!
LINKS:
List of green coffee importers from all over the world
32cup website
Coffeeis.ME Facebook Group
Great stuff! Like how you bring a roasters point of view to the discussion which brings a lot of value. Interesting how 32 Cup make a distinction between commercial grade and specialty not by cupping scoring but how the coffees were shipped (container). At least that is how I interpreted it.
This vas a very good podcast. It was very good to hear Jean talk about taking care of the whole business from the farmers they work with. Lots of other things about the role of a responsible importer that was made more clear too.