Sourcing green coffee from Minas Gerais: a guide for international buyers

Minas Gerais produces most of Brazil's arabica coffee. Understanding origins, grading and the buying process helps make sure the coffee that arrives is the coffee you contracted.

Origins: Sul de Minas and Cerrado Mineiro

Sul de Minas, the Varginha region, grows coffee in high mountains and offers sweet, full-bodied coffees. Cerrado Mineiro, a protected designation of origin, delivers clean and consistent profiles with largely mechanized harvesting. Minas Gerais also has other regions, such as Matas de Minas and Chapada de Minas.

How Brazilian coffee is graded

• Type: number of defects in a 300 g sample, from 2 (fewest defects) to 8. On export contracts it appears as, for example, "NY 2/3";
• Screen size: bean size in 64ths of an inch. "Screen 17/18" means beans retained on screens 17 and 18;
• Cup: the cupping result, from strictly soft to rio. Export contracts also use FC (fine cup) and GC (good cup);
• Process: natural, pulped natural, washed or fermented;
• Specialty coffees: scored on the SCA scale, at 80 points or more.

Samples and approval

Buying starts with an offer sample showing the available profile. Once the deal is closed, a pre-shipment sample (PSS) is drawn from the lot to be shipped and sent to the buyer for approval. The container is only stuffed after approval, so the shipped lot matches the contract.

What goes into the contract

• Quality: type, screen size, cup, process and maximum moisture;
• Quantity in 60-kg bags, with tolerance, and packing: jute, GrainPro or big bags. A 20-foot container holds about 320 bags;
• Fixed price or price to be fixed, as a differential to the New York (ICE) futures market;
• Incoterm (FOB Santos is the most common), shipment month and payment terms, often cash against documents;
• Arbitration rules: many buyers use industry contracts such as the Green Coffee Association (US) or the European Contract for Coffee (Europe).

How WW Trading helps

From Varginha, we source the requested coffee through partner growers, warehouses and brokers, send the samples, handle preparation and documents and ship from the warehouse to the destination port.