Paperwork
The nine documents that travel with it.
A coffee shipment crosses five desks before the vessel sails. At each desk a document is produced, and each document has a home: the public record, or the buyer's account. This page walks the chain in order.
At the lab
The Bole cupping lab. Nothing may be offered until the sheet is signed here.
At the authorities
The permits and certificates that let the coffee leave Ethiopia and enter yours.
At the banks
The local bank holds the letter of credit; the correspondent bank collects abroad.
At the ports
Modjo gate-in, the rail to Djibouti, and the shipping line's receipt for the vessel.
The split
What is public, and what is not.
The rule is simple and it is applied the same way everywhere on this site.
The coffee and its quality.
Anyone can read these, on the lots pages and in the previews above.
- Quality certificates
- Cupping score sheets
- Availability, status and station traceability
The commerce.
Signed-in buyers see the full commercial record of their own shipments — and no one else does.
- Commercial invoices and packing lists
- Contracts, letter-of-credit documents and bank papers
- Transport documents, including bills of lading
The other door
Not coffee?
Coffee is the one thing we hold ourselves. Everything else — sesame, niger seed, pulses, hides, stone, timber, packaged goods — we source to your specification. Tell us the grade, the quantity and the destination, and we confirm in writing what we can get and when.
See how sourcing worksThe pack, prepared
Papers ready
before the port.
Request samples and we can walk you through the exact document chain your market requires — in writing, before any contract.
Request samples