Our mission: every green coffee spec reaches the supplier built for it

The problem we want to solve

Vietnam is the largest source of Robusta in the world, and its coffee chain is built for that job. Most of the crop leaves as commercial Robusta, graded by screen size and defect count, priced off the London Robusta futures plus a differential and moved by large exporters who buy through collectors and agents. For containers of S16 and S18 the system works well.

It works badly at the edges. A roaster who wants a fine Robusta lot, a honey processed Robusta or a washed Arabica from Cau Dat sends a request into a system that answers with standard grades. The offers look alike, the samples may come from a different lot than the one that ships, and the roaster learns more about the supplier after arrival than before the contract.

The farms and mills at the other end have the mirror problem. A farm that picks only ripe red cherries and dries them with care often sells them to a collector at the same price as everyone else, because the buyer who would pay for that work never hears about the farm. The quality is there. The route to the right buyer is not.

Two ways a green coffee spec can travel

Sent to every trader

• Standard grades offered
• Small farms never see it
• Price decides, not cup

Matched by fit

• Offers fit the spec
• Right size of supplier
• Cup and grade decide

For the buyer: the coffee in the spec, at a price that matches it

A fair price depends on what you are buying. For a commercial grade it is the London price plus a differential, quoted by an exporter that ships volume every month. Paying a specialty intermediary for an ordinary S16 lot adds cost without adding coffee. For a fine lot the price is set by the cup and by traceability, and it should be paid to the supplier who did the work rather than multiplied by every layer in between.

Either way the goal is the same: the lot that arrives matches the sample you approved, with the screen size, moisture, defect count and cup in the spec. The grade reference shows how those limits are usually written.

Where the price of a good lot goes

• Coffee at market value
• Processing and grading
• Quality premium to the farm
• Layers in between
• Re-sorting and claims

For the supplier: buyers who pay for what you do well

Every serious coffee supplier in Vietnam is strong at something specific. A large exporter is strong at consistent volume, logistics and contracts on the differential. A processing mill with its own wet line and dryers is strong at honey and washed Robusta. A farm or cooperative that picks selectively is strong at the cup and at keeping each lot separate. A specialty farm in Lam Dong is strong at micro-lots that can be traced to a hillside.

Each of them loses when the request does not fit. A small farm cannot answer an RFQ for five containers a month. A large exporter has no reason to bag 300 kg of a single farm lot. Matched with the right buyer, each can sell at a price that reflects its strength instead of competing on the one thing it does least well.

Which Vietnamese supplier fits which request

Request / supplier type	Large exporter	Processing mill	Fine Robusta farm	Arabica farm
S16, S18 containers	Core strength	Can do
Monthly blend base	Core strength	Can do
Honey, washed Robusta	Can do	Core strength	Can do
Fine Robusta lot		Can do	Core strength
Cau Dat specialty				Core strength
Son La washed volume	Can do	Core strength		Can do
Trial order, few bags		Can do	Core strength	Core strength

• Core strength
• Can do

Why green coffee needs its own matching

Green coffee is an agricultural product. It changes with the region, the altitude, the picking, the processing, the crop year and the warehouse. Two bags labelled Robusta S18 can cup very differently, and moisture that was right at loading can be wrong after six weeks at sea.

That is why a good request names more than a grade, and why the right supplier depends on what the request names. The table shows the usual cases. Regions and processing methods are described on the origins page.

What we commit to

• We read every spec ourselves before it goes anywhere.
• We send it only to suppliers whose type and size fit it, 3 at most, and we tell you when a combination is unrealistic rather than forwarding it anyway.
• We stay out of the price and the contract. Suppliers send samples and quote you directly.
• We describe each request honestly to suppliers, so a farm is not asked for containers and an exporter is not asked for a few bags.
• We publish only figures we can source, from TCVN 4193:2014, SCA grading practice and public agricultural data.
• We reply within 24 business hours, to buyers and to suppliers.

How we will judge ourselves

Not by the number of requests that pass through this site. A good match shows up later: the lot arrives the way the pre-shipment sample promised, the supplier is paid fairly for the quality it produced, and the roaster buys again from the same supplier when the next crop comes in. When that happens the supply chain has done its job, and we were only the introduction.

Who runs the site and what it is not is on About.