Frequently Asked Questions: EMEA

As Sucafina we support roasters across Europe, the Middle East and beyond as they seek the right coffee for any quality or budget. 

You can find out more about us and our ‘Source smart’ approach by reading Our Manifesto and Our Approach.

Our European office address is: Brederodestraat 186 in Antwerp, Belgium. It’s nice. We do open cuppings frequently. You should come see us.

We also have Green Coffee Merchants across the world. Our team is very diverse, and we love to travel. If you’d like to schedule a meet-up, please reach out.

We keep a diverse range of coffees in the following bonded and licensed warehouses:

Antwerp, Belgium -  Pacorini

Hamburg, Germany - Vollers

Istanbul, Turkey - C. Steinweg

Thurrock, UK -  AGC Commodity Store

Thurrock & Liverpool, UK - CWT

Great Braxted, UK - Commodity Centre

Dublin, IE - Seabridge

Dubai, UAE – Dubai Multi Commodity Centre

For the exact addresses at which to load your coffees, please contact us.

You can find the last update of our General Terms & Conditions here or in our footer, below.

We ship most places throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. We also ship to Asia and North America through our Sucafina sister companies.

Sucafina has rigorous quality standards. Every coffee we purchase is selected on the basis of cup quality.

Our coffees are always assessed and approved by our experienced cupping team and in-house Q graders. We buy coffee from trusted partners (very often from our own, vertically integrated supply chain), and we cup each coffee multiple times before it ships and upon arrival.

In addition to assessing cup quality, we maintain strict SCA standards for green assessment. Our lab analyzes each coffee’s moisture content, water activity, and density upon arrival.

Quality is always checked against the quality specified in the contract (i.e. screen distribution and defect count). This is not only to ensure you of the coffee quality but also to perform a Critical Control Points analysis for our OTA risk management procedure. Sucafina NV is ISO9001 certified.

We follow SCA standards for both defect and cup quality. Each of our coffees is given a cup score and a cup description for your reference.

Our lab is equipped with an AkVo Pro+ water filtration system, 3 Roest sample roasters, an Ikawa sample roaster and a Mahlkönig EK43 for grinding. 

We use a Sinar Bean pro 6070 for measuring the moisture and density of the coffee beans and also an Aqualab PAWKIT for measuring the water activity. 

We use a VST III refractometer and a Colortrack to check the consistency of the cuppings and the roasts. 

Learn more about our sample roasting practices.

We are fully committed to the highest ethical standards across our partner supply chains and within our own company. We strive to be transparent and equitable in all our relationships with both suppliers and clients. Our whole-farm sourcing policy helps find homes for the entire range of coffee qualities each farm or washing station produces. This ensures better income for farmers and better options for roasters. Our sustainability pillars are Caring for People, Investing in Farmers and Protecting Our Planet. These are at the core of everything we do and drive our sustainability programs.

All of our suppliers must comply with applicable international and national laws and standards in relation to labor practices and human rights, including slavery and human trafficking legislation. We do not tolerate child labor or any practice that limits childhood development. Suppliers must ensure that all wages and labor practices meet local minimum wage requirements.

As part of the Sucafina Group, we fully support the Swiss commodity sector guidance on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. You can see the full policy here.

In cases where we have doubts about whether a supplier shares our values – commitment to human rights, environmental stewardship, social welfare and innovation – we will share these doubts and push for corrective measures. If required, we cease to continue to work with them.

Equally, we are committed to supplying a safe, equitable and nurturing workplace for all our employees, and we expect the same of our clients.

IMPACT, Sucafina’s responsible sourcing standard, is designed to benefit actors across the supply chain, from farmers to roasters, while creating a fairer, more sustainable supply chain. IMPACT’s standard was guided by the Global Coffee Platform’s Sustainability Reference Code, making it easy for companies to compare its standards to other verification programs.

We also source Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade and Organic-certified coffees.

Another way roasters can engage in sustainability with Sucafina is the Farmgate Initiative. The Farmgate Initiative offers roasters a way to invest directly in the supply chains that are important to them. By purchasing Farmgate Initiative-linked coffees, roasters can be a part of long-term projects that have a lasting impact on the communities that produce their coffee.

We seek transparency in our relations with suppliers and clients alike. For more detailed information on our transparency activities and our ethical stance, see our Manifesto, Our Approach, our Group Code of Conduct and our annual sustainability report.

Of course. We feature Rainforest Alliance, Fair Trade, Fair Trade Organic, and Organic coffees as core components of our regular coffee offerings.

Our commitment to sustainability is not limited to certification compliance.  Sustainability is at the core of who we are as a company, from offering better farm gate pricing for farmers through to helping farmers improve soil fertility and improve yields. You can read more about our various initiatives here.

We are 100% focused on green coffee. We are unique in that we offer our clients a range of coffees from a wide range of origins: Macro-lot to Micro-lot.

We are vertically and horizontally integrated. Our sister companies at origin work directly with farmers and source high-quality coffees at fair prices. In consuming countries, we have sister companies that sell commercial and soluble coffee, finding a home for every coffee. All this means we are more efficient, can provide better value and offer a diversity of expertise from our global network of coffee professionals.

Sustainability is at the heart of who we are as a company. We are involved in numerous initiatives around the world and are constantly evaluating our supply chain for ways to do more.

We are a solution-oriented company focused on both spot and direct shipments. Compared to our larger competitors, we’re lighter on overhead and more flexible. Compared to our smaller competitors, we have deeper roots in origin and better economies of scale.

We have a strong, unique legacy and heritage, yet we are future-oriented, highly adaptable and innovative. Our diverse team speaks English, Arabic, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Spanish and Ukrainian.

Our online position management portal is unique in the business and better than any other importer portal out there.

Yes, we can.

Our team is diverse and comes to coffee from a multitude of backgrounds. This diversity is our strength. We make few assumptions, and we constantly question and strive to improve. We're a team of green coffee experts focused on your success. 

We can provide advice on a wide range of issues from troubleshooting profiles to finding the best coffee for your program. With our experience and wide network at origin, we can help you plan your current and future green coffee needs through pre-booking, meet your unique sustainability requirements and explore other opportunities related to green coffee. 

We have firsthand knowledge of a variety of different coffee communities and markets across the Europe, Middle East and North Africa regions. Our experience and insight are at your service when planning for your profitability and success.

Customer Service is one of our top priorities, and what we don’t know, we can help you find out!

To start, there are a few things we need to know about you and your company. Please create an online account with us, someone will be in touch soon, and then you can start to track your orders and review your position online. If you have any issues or questions about creating an account, we've made a helpful video to walk you through the process. 

After processing your order, we will send you a contract as confirmation and our invoice for payment. After receiving your payment confirmation, we will prepare your order for pick up. If we receive your payment before 10.30am, your order will be ready for pick-up the next morning. If we receive your payment after 10:30 am, your order will be ready the day after next.

As always, contact us if you have any questions.

While we would love to share our delicious coffees with the whole world, we are currently only able to supply roasters and other related businesses.

There are plenty of businesses that supply home roasters with green coffee – let us know if you need a recommendation, and we’ll try and help!

Our minimum order is one unit (bag or box) of any coffee we offer. The unit size is mentioned on our price list under ‘bag type’ next to each coffee. This will vary between 22 kg and 70 kg. Unfortunately, we cannot currently offer amounts smaller than the listed unit.

A coffee contract is a legally binding document that lists the rights and obligations of each party. You have received a contract for two reasons: first, to enable you to double check that what your ordered (origin, quality, quantity, price, delivery terms, credit terms,etc.) has been correctly processed by us; second, so that you know your rights and your obligations when you order coffee.

It is important to read and return a signed copy of the contract after you receive it.  Under our general conditions, the contract is deemed correct and valid 24 hours after it is sent to you, so please let us know immediately if you have any questions or concerns.

You can change your order as long as no invoice and no customs formalities have been issued and only if your order has not already been prepared on a pallet.

Once an order has been translated to a contract, cancellation is only at the discretion of Sucafina management.   Our friendly staff are happy to help talk you through the best options for your roasting requirements before contracting anything.

In addition to the terms mentioned on the contract, we make sure all customs formalities required in your country are issued (EU customs clearance, Transit document T1, etc.). Upon request we can provide you with the CMR (proof that goods have been loaded).

You must request any additional documents at the time of your order, and the cost for these documents will be charged to your account.

Sure! 

If you want to seize the opportunity of a low market, want to take advantage of a favorable currency position or just want to secure your price now to be delivered in the future, we can help you put coffees on contract for future delivery. Contact us for more details.

We are in daily contact with exporters and farmers for sourcing and logistics. Our extensive experience means we can help your company by shipping and importing your coffees. If you are interested in having us act on your behalf for your direct trade logistics, feel free to contact us for more details.

All payments must be made using a bank account that is under your company name. For prior payment credit terms, please send payment within 5 working days of receiving the invoice. 

Please contact your trader to request credit terms. Approval must be granted by our internal credit risk team as well as our credit insurer. Both entities will assess the risk and may request recent financials from your company.

To apply for credit terms, please ask for a copy of the application from your salesperson.  You may send your request and all the necessary information to our team.

Our finance department will treat your request confidentially and will reply to you after receiving the decision of our insurer.

You will receive an invoice via email in a .pdf format unless otherwise specified. Each invoice will contain your company name, address and VAT number (if applicable) followed by our invoice number or numbers. 

If you are ordering coffees from many contracts or origins, you will receive one invoice with several reference numbers across the top. Below this line you will find the details of each coffee you have purchased, as well as any additional charges, along with our bank information for your payment.

At the bottom of your invoice you will find our conditions of payment.

We accept Cold Hard Cash.

Seriously though, we only accept bank transfers for now. Our bank information is printed at the bottom of your invoice.

When making a payment, please always mention your invoice number or numbers in order to avoid inconsistencies or confusion.

For security purposes, we will never contact you via telephone or email asking you to pay on another account. If you have any questions or concerns about a payment or invoice, we are always happy to help.

For further questions regarding your invoice please contact us.

This will depend on where your business is located.

Since our office in the EU is based in Belgium, our Belgian customers are the only ones who must pay Belgian VAT and excise duties on coffee (sorry, guys!). 

For customers based in EU who don’t have a VAT number in their country, EU customs must clear the goods in Belgium, which includes paying VAT and excise duties. Therefore, if this applies to you, you will also be charged Belgian VAT and excise duties.

All other EU customers  

For all other EU customers, our prices include EU customs clearance.  VAT will not be charged as long as a valid EU VAT number is provided, as responsibility for VAT payment will be transferred to the buyer under EU VAT laws and regulations.

In the UK

Taxes and duties are included in the price of the coffee.

In the Middle East

VAT varies from country to country. Please email us for more information.

Yes. We are happy to supply both green (100 grams) and roasted (40 grams) samples to you upon request. Roasted samples will be roasted to a standard sample roasting profile designed for cupping.

We are sometimes able to supply larger samples upon request, depending on availability. 

Samples are free of charge. Please request samples via our offerings page. You'll just need to log in first. Here's a video to walk you through the steps. 

You can use the search filters to select coffee location, origin, certification, or sensory notes (coffees that have not yet arrived are shown do not have pricing). Click on the plus sign to the left of the coffee name to see more details.

You can usually order samples of spot coffees that are available from any of our warehouse.  You can directly from our offerings page.

Please note that our standard green sample size is 100 grams. If you can’t roast that volume, we can provide roasted samples of minimum 30 grams.  All sample requests are subject to availability and are at our discretion.

We encourage you to sign up for our newsletter by filling in the link in our footer. Our newsletter features our latest coffee offers, new arrivals, harvest updates and news from our global network of coffee professionals.

You can also apply to create an online account with us, where you can track your orders and review your contracts, invoices, and account details. When you sign up for an online account, you will also have the opportunity to sign up for our weekly updates.  

You can access our current offerings via our offerings page.

We update our prices three times per day based on the current world market both for coffee and currencies. We offer transparent, tiered pricing, meaning the more coffee you order at one time, the sharper your price offer. 

You can use the search filters to select currency, coffee location, origin, certification, or sensory notes (coffees that have not yet arrived are shown do not have pricing). You can also use tags to filter by key categories including sales, women-powered lots and more. Click on the plus sign to the left of the coffee name to see more details.

Prices quoted on our website are different per location and quality.

• Coffees in Dubai and London are priced basis EXW. 
• Coffees in Antwerp and Hamburg are being sold basis FCA. 
• Prices quoted (basis EXW or at Warehouse) are for 10 bags. If you hover your mouse without clicking on the tags inscribed, you will see the various price levels available. 
• Some coffees have a fixed price (no tiers in quantity) while others, indicated by a price tag to the right of the price, have discounts based on volume. Scrolling over the tag, you’ll see quantity tiers per contract and the related price for that quality. The volume discounts are related to the total volume of your order. This means you can mix and match different coffees and the total bag amount counts towards the discount.

Higher coffee bag volumes are subject to a discount due to logistics efficiencies and pallet capacity. 

If you have further questions about our list or availability of specific coffees please contact us.

Note: Status filter is defined as follows

• New Arrival: 0-60 days
• Current crop: 61-270 days
• Discount: 270+ days

This video walks you through the process of finding traceability information on the coffees you've purchased. 

To find a coffee product sheet, access the search bar by clicking on the magnifying glass that is on the top right of every page. From there, search for the name of the coffee you're seeking and select the matching profile.

It depends on where you are and who you want to consolidate with. The other importer will need to keep that coffee in the warehouse where our coffee is stored. But generally, the answers are....

Pacorini (Antwerp, Belgium) warehouse: Yes

AGC (Thurrock, UK) warehouse: Yes

CWT (Thurrack & Liverpool, UK) warehouse: Yes

Commodity Centre (Great Braxted, UK) warehouse: Yes

Seabridge (Dublin, IE) warehouse: Yes

Vollers (Hamburg, Germany) warehouse: Yes

DMCC (Dubai, UAE) warehouse: In some cases, yes. Please contact us to learn more.

In all of the above cases, you just need to let us know that the order will be consolidated when asking for release.  

Pacorini (Antwerp, Belgium) warehouse: If you place your order before 10.30am Antwerp time, your order will be ready to be collected starting from the next weekday morning. If you want your order to be transported elsewhere, it will take approximately one additional business day for deliveries within Benelux (BE, NE, LUX) and up to five working days to elsewhere in the European Union.

Vollers (Hamburg, Germany) warehouse: If you place your order before 10.30am Hamburg time, your order will be ready to be collected starting from the next weekday morning. If you want your order to be transported elsewhere, it will take up to five working days to most places within the European Union.

AGC (Tilbury, UK) warehouse: If an order and release is complete by 12pm on any given day, then the coffee can be ready for delivery. Ground transport usually takes 24 hours within mainland UK. Most deliveries can be ready for delivery within 48 hours.

DMCC (Dubai, UAE) warehouse: This depends on the destination. Please get in touch to learn more.

Your logistics representative can provide more details at the time of your order.  Please note that special delivery requirements may require additional cost or time.

Yes we can! We are able to arrange trucking to all EU (Schengen) countries and throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Contact us for more info.

Yes!  Our logistics team can provide you with a loading reference that will allow you or your transporter to collect your coffee.

We can load up to 10 bags of 60kg or 16 bags/boxes of 30kg on one pallet. Adding additional bags/cartons than the recommended number may not be possible and will always be at your own risk due to instability during transport.

Standard prices are based on collecting or loading loose bags. If you prefer, we can put your order on a euro pallet or one-way pallet. Additional options include wrapping and/or strapping. Palletizing and wrapping may incur additional costs.

If you noticed any damage to the coffee or pallet, we advise that you not sign the CMR upon delivery. Contact us immediately with the issue and pictures 

Any quality issues should be communicated within 3 days of delivery.