Green Coffee Sales to Non-Members

We occasionally have excess coffee available in our inventory for sale to non-members on a "spot" basis.  We receive many calls each month asking if we will sell to non-members and, to be honest, we are not aggressive in pursuing these opportunities because our primary commitment is to supply the roasters who have invested a lot of time, energy and money in our cooperative.  They book coffee with us up to a year in advance and we do everything that we can do to keep these roasters supplied throughout the year.   If we are certain that extra coffee is available, we will list these coffee on our spot sheet and sell according to the following terms:

• New Customer Application is completed and references checked.  Download here.
• First two orders are sold on pre-paid basis.  We prefer a wire transfer but will accept a check with confirmation of funds from your banks.
• Contract signed and faxed or emailed back to our office for deliveries. Example contract here.

We are willing to also accept bookings from non-members for future deliveries.  We will not price this coffee in advance and we do not fix prices against the NY C market so we often do not know what we will pay for a lot of coffee until it ships.  We can only offer a guarantee of supply and a fair, cost plus pricing agreement. 

Typically, our non-member sale price on all coffee is +35 over our landed cost in our New Jersey warehouse.  Our minimum purchase is 8 bags of coffee - or about 1,000 pounds.  We do not sell partial bags (we don't open bags). It usually takes a week for us to approve a new customer application so plan accordingly.  We require 2 days lead time before shipping an order.

If you are located close to one of our current members, we will probably decline selling coffee to you because our past experiences have not been favorable.  We will take time to help you locate an alternative source for fair trade, organic coffee. Please understand that our first priority is to our member-roasters and keeping this organization moving forward with healthy internal relations.

Freight Arrangements

United States Shipments:  We have an exclusive arrangement with CH Robinson to provide freight services to our members and some non-members.  You are not required to use their service, but for relatively small orders they are very competitive and they understand how to move coffee from our warehouse to your dock.  If you choose to use CHR,  we will complete your bill of lading for you and you will need to pay the driver for freight costs when the coffee arrives unless you have previously established credit with CHR or us. If you chose to arrange your freight yourself, you will need to follow these procedures in order to ensure that our warehouse has your order ready for pickup at the appropriate time.   Orders of 32 bags or less  are required to ship through CHR.

Canadian Shipments:  We do not have a specific arrangement with a freight company in Canada. We can recommend a few companies to you if you call our office.

Freight Claims Due to Damaged Product

Every delivery needs to be carefully inspected before the billing of lading from the trucking company is signed and the truck is allowed to leave.  If you do not note damage on a bill of lading while the driver is present, it is unlikely that you will ever collect a claim.

If you spot or even suspect damage, take the following action:

• Make a note on the bill of lading that damage exists and be as specific as possible. Get the driver to sign also.
• Take multiple photos of the problem - make sure they adequately document the problem.
• Download this claim form, complete it in full including a very detailed description of the problem and email the form and the photos to CH Robinson per instructions on the form. 
  

Note:  Freight companies have the right to remove shrinkwrap from pallets and ship the bags individually. We hate it when they do this but we can't stop them.  If the pallet looks like it has been restacked or broken down after it left the warehouse, carefully inspect the bags.  Freight companies will typically take a month or two to process your claim. The sooner you send all of the claim info to them, the quicker you will get your payment.