Buying coffee in the producing countries—Transporting coffee to the consuming markets—Some record coffee cargoes shipped to the United States—Transport over seas—Java coffee "ex-sailing vessels"—Handling coffee at New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco—The coffee exchanges of Europe and the United States—Commission men and brokers—Trade and exchange contracts for delivery—Important rulings affecting coffee trading—Some well known green coffee marks
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N moving green coffee from the plantations to the consuming countries, the shipments pass through much the same trade channels as other foreign-grown food products. In general, the coffee goes from planter to trader in the shipping ports; thence to the exporter, who sells it to an importer in the consuming country; he in turn passing it on, to a roaster, to be prepared for consumption. The system varies in some respects in the different countries, according to the development of economic and transportation methods; but, broadly considered, this is the general method.
Buying Coffee in the Producing Countries
The marketing of coffee begins when the berries are swept up from the drying patios, put in gunny sacks, and sent to the ports of export to be sampled and shipped. In Brazil, four-wheeled wagons drawn by six mules, or two-wheeled carts carry it to the nearest railroad or river.
Brazil, as the world's largest producer of coffee, has the most highly developed buying system. Coffee cultivation has been the chief agricultural pursuit in that country for many years; and large amounts of government and private capital have been invested in growing, transportation, storage, and ship-loading facilities, particularly in the state of São Paulo.
The usual method in Brazil is for the fazendeiro (coffee-grower) or the commisario (commission merchant) to load his shipments of coffee at an interior railroad station. If his consignee is in Santos, he generally deposits the bill of lading with a bank and draws a draft, usually payable after thirty days, against the consignee. When the consignee accepts the draft, he receives the bill of lading, and is then permitted to put the coffee in a warehouse.
Storing at Santos
At Santos most of the storing is done in the steel warehouses of the City Dock Company, a private corporation whose warehouses extend for three miles along the waterfront at one end of the town. Railroad switches lead to these warehouses, so that the coffee is brought to storage in the same cars in which it was originally loaded up-country. The warehouses are leased by commisarios. There are also many old warehouses, built of wood, still operated in Santos, and to these the coffee is transferred from the railroad station either by mule carts or by automobile trucks.
At the receiving warehouses, samples of each bag are taken; the tester, or sampler, standing at the door with a sharp tool, resembling a cheese-tester, which he thrusts into the center of the bag as the men pass him with the bags of coffee on their heads, removing a double handful of the contents. The samples are divided into two parts; one for the seller, and one that the commisario retains until he has sold the consignment of coffee covered by that particular lot of samples.
The Last Sample Before Export, Santos
The Disappearing Ensaccador
In the old days it was the custom every morning for the ensaccadores, or baggers, and the exporters or their brokers, to visit the commisarios' warehouses and to bargain for lots of coffee made up by the commisario.
In the Santos market, until recent years, the ensaccador, or coffee-bagger, often stood between the commisario and exporter. When American importing houses began to establish their own buying offices in the Brazilian ports (about 1910) to deal direct with the fazendeiro and the commisario, the gradual elimination of the ensaccador was begun. Today he has entirely disappeared from the Santos market, and is disappearing from Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Victoria.
Coffee reaches Santos in a mixed condition; that is, it has not been graded, or separated according to its various qualities. This is the work of the commisario, who puts each shipment into "lots" in new "official" bags, each of which bears a mark stating that the contents are São Paulo growth. If the coffee is offered for sale by the owner, the commisario will then put it on the "street," the section of Santos given over to coffee trading.
Stamping Bags for Export, Santos
The commisario works with samples of the coffee he has to offer and only puts out one set at a time. He names his "asking" price, known locally as the pedido, which is the maximum rate he expects to get, but seldom receives. A set of samples may be shown to twenty-five or thirty exporting houses in a day, one at a time. When the sample is in the hands of a firm for consideration, no other exporter has the right to buy the lot even at the pedido price, and the commisario can not accept other offers until he has refused the bid. On the other hand, if a house refuses to give up the samples, it is understood that it is willing to pay the pedido price. The firm first offering a price acceptable to the commisario'sbroker gets the lot, even though other houses have offered the same price.
When a lot is sold, the samples are turned over to the successful bidder, and he then asks thecommisario for larger samples for comparison with the first set.
Commisarios Make as High as Nine Percent
Having sold the coffee of a given planter, the commisario often gets as much as nine percent for his share of the transaction. Unless the bags have been furnished to the planter at a good rental, the coffee must be transferred to the commisario's bags; and for this the planter pays a commission.
Coffee From the Fazendas Is Delivered at the Commissarios' Warehouses in Rio
Interior of a Santos Cleaning and Grading Warehouse
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