Packing Specialty Coffee! ... and how it´s done.

You already know that we travel to coffee farms to get to know the life and work of the coffee farmer families. A small but important process in coffee farming is packing for export. After sorting, the beans are packed and shipped to roasters, importers and coffee traders all around the globe.

Brazilian coffee bag. International standard unit for export, 60 kg.
Brazilian coffee bag. International standard unit for export, 60 kg.

INTERNATIONAL EXPORT

For international export, green coffee is usually transported in the world-famous Brazilian jute sacks. They hold 60 kg of coffee and considered as the official unit for international trade and export statistics.

Stacking coffee bags prepared for shipping.
Stacking coffee bags prepared for shipping.

PACKING COFFEE

Spontaneously organized, I had the opportunity to pack our own coffee order in Colombia by myself. > Juan Pablo "naturals" <

Well almost myself, to do it right, John, a neighbor farmer and friend of Juan Pablo's family was so nice to help me.

Filling the coffee bags with green coffee to exactly 35 kg.
Filling the coffee bags with green coffee to exactly 35 kg.

Unlike on big coffee farms, where machines often fill the bags, pack them, and sometimes presort them by destination for export, on Juan Pablo's farm everything is done by hand.

THE INNER WRAPPER WAS NEW TO ME

In order to protect the valuable and sensitive green coffee from moisture and weather on its way to us, the actual jute sack is additionally provided with a plastic inner sack, which is closed tightly and airtight after filling. We then sealed the jute bag with a strong yarn using a portable sewing machine and stacked it on the designated place for transportation.

Sealing coffee the bags with a hand sewing machine.
Sealing coffee the bags with a hand sewing machine.

That's it, and if the sewing machine hadn't broken my yarn several times, I wouldn't know how much manual skill is needed to seal a coffee bag ...

Enjoy your coffee!

FURTHER LINKS

Read more about our experiences on the farm of Argote Specialty Coffee and our coffee travels in our Specialty Coffee Blog!

Celebrating farmersvaluefirst first ever green coffee bag together! Juan Pablo Argote, Argote Specialty Coffee on the left & André Näder, farmersvaluefirst on the right.
Celebrating farmersvaluefirst first ever green coffee bag together! Juan Pablo Argote, Argote Specialty Coffee on the left & André Näder, farmersvaluefirst on the right.

Read about Juan Pablo's visit to Frankfurt, Germany.

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