Joining the algrano community is a simple process and free for everyone. For growers, this means that you can start to offer your coffee immediately for no charge. Roasters can also join for free and may start to request samples straightaway. Please see the question 'shipping costs for samples' for more information.

Yes, members can communicate with each other once they have joined the algrano community. Every time a message is sent, the recipient will be notified by email. A roaster can start a conversation with any grower, while a grower may only start a conversation with one of his or her buyers.

The general rule is that everyone can see updates from growers, and followers are notified about these updates. Roaster updates are only shown to their followers and growers.

Everyone is welcome to join and is encouraged to be an active member of the algrano community. It only takes a matter of seconds to create an account and start building your profile so that you can request samples from growers - or offer your green coffee to roasters.

Following the European Contract of Coffee, you have 21 days to complain about the quality, after the coffee has arrived in the port of destination. We will do our best to ensure that the coffee arrives immediately after landing at your roastery to leave you a maximum of time to evaluate quality. If this is not the case, our partners at the destination can provide samples. If you taste any subjective difference in quality between your pre-shipment sample and the coffee you received, please immediately send us a message and a sample. This sample will be compared to the two control samples taken at the origin and the port of destination. If our independent evaluation concludes on a quality issue as well, we will be able to start an arbitration process, if needed and to come to an agreement with the producer on the substitution of the coffee, a price reduction or financial compensation.

From 50 bags, we can finance the coffee for you for up to 12 months. In this case, you will contract for 50 bags but will gradually pay, when you use the coffee. Please contact us for further details and an offer.

You buy the coffee subject to approval of a pre-shipment sample. When you order the coffee you agree to the quality of the sample that you cupped or in case you did not order a sample, you renounce to the right of approval. With ordering coffee, you approve the quality, decide about quantity, price, delivery and payment terms. The total value of your order has to be paid to algrano, who as a commission agent will ship the coffee, pay the supplier and organize all the services you ordered.

There is no limit to the number of samples that you can request but we kindly ask you to only order samples of coffees that you are really interested in. This is because we only have a limited quantity of samples available from each lot. It also costs the grower in postage and packaging every time they send a quantity of samples to roasters.

It’s very simple. All you need to do is add the lot of coffee that you have chosen to your shopping cart to get a full quote - then proceed to the checkout. Please check out the ‘Buying coffee’ section for more information.

One sample contains approximately 100g of green coffee.

After you have placed your order, it usually takes between 3-5 business days for your samples to be delivered to an address anywhere in Europe.

The coffees offered on the platform are exclusive to the algrano community - which includes samples. The first three samples ordered by a professional coffee roaster based in Europe are free. Thereafter, there is a nominal charge to cover handling and shippings costs. For example, it costs approximately 20 USD in shipping costs to order three samples of green beans.

The exchange of green bean samples between grower and roasters is central to the way that algrano enables transparent, direct trade. This means that we ship a lot of samples which incurs a cost to producers. We therefore kindly ask roasters to cover the cost of shipping and handling of subsequent samples ordered.

At algrano, we want to incentivize a transparent and informative conversation about coffee. This is why we will refund the shipping cost of the samples when you post feedback of your cupping evaluation, and make a purchase of the respective coffee reviewed online.

We encourage all members of the algrano community to exchange dialogue with each other. Naturally, growers are very keen to hear constructive feedback about the green coffee that they send. We believe that to better understand roaster’s needs, growers benefit greatly from an honest and objective cupping evaluation of their coffees. In addition, other roasters will benefit from your feedback as well!

If algrano is your contract counterpart for import, your coffee is fully insured during the transport and warehousing against all risks of ‘force majeure’.

Yes, you can book space in the shipping container if it is leaving the country of origin that you bought your coffee from. Please contact us here for more details.

Our role is defined as a commission agent. This means that we make sure that all the services between you and the grower are provided transparently and efficiently. For example, we identify the mills, banks, and freight forwarders who offer the services to the grower to make sure that your the coffee arrives at your roastery safely.

When your coffee arrives at the port of landing in Bremen, you must follow these steps to get your coffee safely to your roastery:

• We will inform the warehouse about your coffee contract and billing address
• You will receive details of a contact person at the warehouse
• You arrange with your preferred logistic transporter to pick up the coffee no later than one month after arrival in the warehouse
• You are kindly asked to inform the warehouse about the exact date of collection and details of the trucking company who will deliver your coffee
• You send us a completed ‘arrival form’ which you will have received from us when you first ordered the coffee through algrano. This is an important document that is required for any inspection by the authorities.
• Your coffee will be delivered on the date pre-arranged by you with your preferred logistics company.

We are always looking for trusted logistics partners to help play a role in algrano’s quality management systems and logistics. Please get in touch with us so we can discuss how your would like to establish a partnership with us.

To import coffee into Hungary, the rules of the new Electronic Trade and Transport Control System (EKAER) now apply. The system aims to filter out VAT fraud and obliges the buyer to pre-declare goods being imported into the country to the authorities beforehand. As this significantly complicates the delivery procedure, roasters are responsible for organizing the transport from Bremen, Germany, themselves.

If you would prefer to buy Freight on Board (FOB) and can organise your own trade finance, transport, insurance and logistics from the warehouse in the country of landing to your roastery, you can import your own coffee directly. Please contact us for more details.

Although this is very unlikely to happen, the unexpected can sometimes occur. In this case, we will immediately inform you and discuss the next course of action. Possible solutions are:

• Full refund of your payments (including the algrano service fee), or
• Supply of another coffee of at least the same quality.

You choose under which terms you buy the coffee. If you buy FOB you have to organize the shipping to Europe on your own. If you buy ex-warehouse, you only have to organize the road transport to your roastery. If you pick the option road transport as well, you get the full service package and you have to organize nothing at all. In this last case, algrano is your commission agent. We insure your coffee while it is travelling and manage the quality during the shipping and communicate you the expected arrival date at your roastery was well as any expected delays.

Maintaining consistent coffee quality along the supply chain is of paramount importance to us. In order to achieve this, we systematically ask our partners to measure moisture content and weight at departure and arrival. This helps us to track where a possible reduction in quality has occurred. In the unlikely event that this happens, we kindly ask you to contact us within 14 days of the coffee arriving at your roastery so that we can investigate the matter with our partners immediately.

You can choose the terms you wish to buy your coffee under. If you buy FOB then you are fully responsible for organizing the shipping to Europe. If you buy ex-warehouse, you only have to organise the haulage of your coffee to you roastery. If you select the ‘road transport´ option to your roastery however, algrano will be your commission agent and you will get the full service package. This is means that you have peace of mind that your coffee is insured while it is in transport. We will also inform you of the expected arrival date of the coffee at your roastery.

After you have ordered your coffee on algrano, you will receive a contract from us accompanied by an invoice, a document with instructions about what happens next and an Arrival Form. This needs to be completed once you have received your coffee and returned to us immediately. The form is a declaration of proof that the coffee you have ordered has arrived and will be required if case of a tax audit.

This differs from country to country. For German roasters, the coffee has already been imported and tax duties have been paid. For roasteries based in Switzerland who have ordered coffee with delivery included, VAT has already been paid. Roasters from all other countries, as well as roasters from Switzerland who organize the road transport from the port to the roastery themselves, are responsible for paying any import and VAT duties themselves.

Our online analytics tool shows how much coffee you have in your inventory at warehouse. This tool also tracks all your previous purchases and releases of coffee lots with a forecast of your stock allocation over time.

The collection, transport and delivery of coffee from the warehouse is the responsibility of the roaster. If you schedule a release, we will automatically create the respective transport order for you. All you have to do is forward this on to your preferred haulage company.
By scheduling a release through the algrano platform, you will be asked for some information about the haulage company. We will release the coffee at warehouse so that it is ready for the hauler to collect the coffee and transport to your stated delivery address.

For orders over 50 bags, you can arrange for warehousing during the checkout process. For orders under this volume, we will cover the warehousing up to one month at the port of landing in Bremen but kindly ask that you contact a third party warehouse in your area if you cannot store the coffee in your roastery and need safe, secure storage for longer period of time. Please contact us for further information about this.

We partner with warehouses across Europe. If you have more than 50 bags when placing your order through the shopping cart, you will have the option to store your coffee in a warehouse of your choice. Please contact us if you do not see a an option to warehouse the coffee in your country.

A calculation of the cost for warehousing will be listed in the shopping cart based on your warehouse usage. This cost includes warehouse duration, volume needed and amount of releases. Once you place your order, you will have access to your online inventory where you can manage releases, forecast stock allocation, access invoices and much more.

Please log into algrano and click my warehouse from the dropdown menu under your username to select the coffees you want. In the section schedule a release you choose the quantity of bags requested. In the next step you only have to indicate the pick-up date and confirm delivery address and pre-arranged haulage company. Once you have done this, you will receive an email containing the invoice and a PDF that you can share with your haulage company to make sure they receive all the correct information.

Please note: To allow for the adequate draw-down time of your coffees in warehouse, your logistics company can only pick up the coffee two days after scheduling the release of your coffees online. You can schedule a release any time up to one week in advance.

Prices differ by country. However, ordering coffee through algrano is fully transparent and therefore will share all costs with you once you decide to place an order.

If you have a credit line with us, as soon as you schedule a release on the platform you will be invoiced for the amount of bags you released. This is payable within 30 days. Please go to the ‘releases history’ option in ‘my warehouse’ to find all the invoices of your previous releases.

The coffee you ordered is reserved only for you. However, if you have a credit line with us the coffee is still in algrano’s hands until you transfer ownership from algrano to yourself on collection by the haulage company.

As your coffee is still in algrano’s hands, we will inform the warehouse about your pre-ordered collection and provide approval of the release. Your only responsibility is to arrange for collection at warehouse by your preferred haulage company and provide them with the necessary information. The easiest way to do this is by forwarding the PDF of the transport order which will be created automatically if you schedule a release.