Importers Are Partners, Not Middlemen
Share
Alejandro Cadena, CEO of Caravela Coffee, recently wrote something that articulates so clearly what a good coffee importer actually does for a roaster: Heres the full article
but in a nutshell:
“By managing that complexity, we reduce uncertainty for both sides. We provide market access to producers, dependable supply to roasters and greater transparency and consistency to the industry. When this work is done well, it often becomes invisible. Coffee arrives, quality is preserved, information is available, farmers are paid and roasters receive what they expected. But none of that happens automatically.”
We have never thought of our importing partners as “middlemen.” That word suggests an opportunistic entity sitting between the farmer and the roaster, taking cost without adding value. The reality is almost exactly the opposite. Do “middlemen” exist? Sure, of course. We’re not interested in that kind of relationship.
The importers we work with make our job possible in ways that are easy to overlook because, when they are doing their job well, everything just works. The coffee arrives. It is what we expected. We know who produced it and where. We can call someone when we have a question. We can find the next coffee. We can plan our annual schedule. Perhaps most importantly, we can focus on roasting, selling and serving coffee instead of trying to manage every piece of a supply chain that stretches thousands of miles and across multiple countries, currencies and businesses. There is another part of the relationship that deserves more attention: the money.
Our importing partners effectively allow us to roast coffee today and pay for it later. But, they have already purchased the coffee from the producer, financed its movement out of the country, put it on a boat, brought it into the United States, warehoused it and carried the inventory. They are putting their capital at risk so that we don't have to put all of ours at risk at the same time. That financial float is a tremendous benefit to a roaster. And we’re grateful.
It means we can put our capital into our employees, our cafes, our roastery, equipment, green coffee inventory and growing the business rather than having to finance every pound of coffee from the moment it leaves origin. It gives us flexibility and buys us time. It gives us the ability to run our business without having to tie up enormous amounts of cash in coffee that may not be roasted or sold for months.
That benefit can be easy to take for granted but shouldn't be.
Because the financial relationship only works when both sides act responsibly.
There are plenty of examples in our industry of businesses that don't pay their bills on time, break contracts, stretch terms indefinitely or simply run out of money. Some are perfectly capable of roasting beautiful coffee but aren't capable of running a financially sustainable business. And when that happens, someone else ultimately pays the price. Very often, that someone is the importer. The importer is left holding the bag, carrying the debt and absorbing the loss. They have effectively financed a business that wasn't financially prepared to finance itself. That's an important part of the conversation around sustainability in coffee. I have a post it note stuck on my desk: Mission fails without fiscal responsibility
You can have the best intentions in the world. You can pay producers well. You can build great relationships. You can roast exceptional coffee. You can tell an important story about where that coffee comes from. But eventually, somebody has to pay the invoice. If we want to be around for 10, 20 or 30 years and continue supporting producers, employees, communities and leave it a ll a little bit better than when we found it, then being financially responsible isn't separate from our mission. It's part of the mission.
That's why we believe our importing partners deserve to be treated as partners, not as an unlimited line of credit. Their willingness to carry inventory and extend terms gives us flexibility, but that flexibility creates an obligation on our side. We need to manage our business thoughtfully, pay our bills and honor our commitments. We need to understand that our partners' financial health and ours is integrated.
The financial piece is only one part of what our importing partners bring to us. They also bring knowledge, relationships, data from the farm level. They understand harvest conditions, varieties, processing, quality and producers in ways that we simply couldn't replicate sitting in Chicago. They introduce us to coffees and people we never would have found on our own. They help us understand why one coffee is different from another and what is happening at origin that might affect what ends up in our roastery six months later. They have expanded our understanding of coffee. They have introduced us to coffees that have surprised us and excited us. They have helped us build a coffee program that we simply could not have built by ourselves. We wouldn't be where we are today without these relationships. They helped us through COVID and the stupid tariffs (that we paid for). This is also why we've never felt the need to diminish the role of an importer in order to make our own story louder.
Coffee has spent a lot of time romanticizing the idea of “direct trade,” as though removing an importer automatically makes a relationship more direct, more transparent or more meaningful. We're not convinced. “Direct trade” can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes it describes a genuinely deep relationship between a roaster and producer. Other times, it's a fairly vague label on pretty packaging that doesn't tell you very much and doesn’t guarantee quality or fairness.
We have chosen a different path. We care less about what the relationship is called and more about if it works. Is the producer being paid fairly? Is the coffee being produced and preserved well? Is there transparency? Is the information credible? Is someone investing in the relationship? Is someone taking responsibility when things go wrong? Is the coffee getting to the roaster in a way that preserves its quality? And are all of the businesses involved financially healthy enough to keep doing this next year?
Those questions matter more to us than painting a (sometimes) mis-leading picture.
Coffee is an incredibly complicated supply chain. In it, the farmer matters enormously. So does the person who knows that farmer. The person who helps develop the coffee. The person who finances the purchase and pays the farmer. The person who gets it out of the country. The person who manages the logistics. The person who carries the inventory once it lands. The person who protects its quality. The person who provides the information we need. And the person who assumes the risk that the coffee might not sell as planned. When all of that works, it becomes invisible. Which is exactly Alejandro's point.
“Coffee arrives, quality is preserved, information is available, farmers are paid and roasters receive what they expected. But none of that happens automatically.”
Our importing partners aren't a layer we need to eliminate.
They are partners we need to value and celebrate. Part of valuing them means recognizing not only the coffee and relationships they bring us, but the capital, risk, knowledge and infrastructure they provide. We're grateful for these partnerships. We're equally committed to holding up our end of it.
If we all want a coffee industry that is genuinely sustainable not just environmentally or socially, but economically then every participant has to be able to stand on solid financial ground.
Thank you, Coastal Commodities. Thank you, Crop to. Cup, Thank you Red Fox. Thank you Keffa. Thank you, Moii. Thank you, Granja Paraiso 92. Thank you, Cofinet. Thank you, Farmers Project. Thank you, Café Imports. Thank you, Walker Coffee. Thank you, Honduran Coffee Alliance. Thank you, Green Bean Asia. Thank you, Onyx. Thank you, Unblended. Thank you, Samaria Coffee. Thank you, Desarrolladores de Café. Thank you, Felipe Restrepo.
