Sourcing specialty coffee is a complex, data-driven process, grounded in building strong relationships with farmers, cooperatives, washing stations, and exporters. We source coffee from ten different origins, managed by dedicated buyers either based at our HQ in Oslo, or on the ground. Each of our buyers brings a unique perspective and faces different challenges within their regions. But what does a green coffee buyer do day-to-day?
We sat down with the team to learn more about their roles—how they plan, work directly with suppliers, and navigate the complexities that shape the quality coffee we deliver to roasters worldwide.
Joanne Berry, our Head of Sourcing & Procurement, has been leading the team for the past 9 years, and is the backbone of our global sourcing strategy. Rory Rosenberg handles the Peruvian market, Juan ‘Enki’ Suarez is our buyer in Colombia working from Bogotá, and Adham Yonis is based in Addis Ababa as our Ethiopia Country Manager. Joanne oversees all operations and is the main buyer for the rest of the origins we source from: Brazil, Kenya, Indonesia, Uganda, Rwanda, Honduras, and El Salvador.
At our Oslo lab, Espen Stokkan-Smith, our Lab Manager, oversees quality control aspects together with Josh and Eliza, supporting the procurement team. By continuously cupping, physically testing, and evaluating every sample, they can ensure it fulfils our quality promise throughout the whole product cycle.
1. Pre-season planning: aligning market demand & production capacity
Pre-season planning is the bedrock of the sourcing process, guiding everything from quality targets to logistical timelines. Each year, our buyers assess what went well and where we faced challenges in order to refine the approach for the season ahead. While each origin requires its own focus, gathering detailed insights from suppliers is key to setting realistic goals. Keeping suppliers informed about projected volumes and contract terms is crucial, and sharing feedback on how coffees performed in the market helps them make adjustments in processing, shipping, or other areas of production.
In Colombia, Enki emphasises the importance of understanding both ends of the supply chain. He keeps close communication with Nordic’s sales team to understand customer preferences, while also assessing what suppliers in Colombia can offer, whether it’s naturals, honeys, or rare varieties like Geisha. With this insight, he builds a pre-season “shopping list” as he likes to call it, to align supply with demand.
In Ethiopia, Adham values in-person visits to washing stations, where firsthand observation of the harvest offers insights beyond what remote reports can capture. Monitoring factors like red cherry prices, understanding early sample profiles, and expected timelines guide his buying projections. Coordinating separate timelines for washed and natural shipments is essential, as washed lots in Ethiopia are ready earlier in the season due to the country’s export regulations.
In Peru, Rory emphasises the importance of early and continuous collaboration with suppliers to monitor every aspect of the harvest. For example, picking and processing in low-altitude regions (around 1600-1700 masl) generally starts in May. While we don’t typically source coffee from these altitudes, tracking the progress here can give us valuable insights into what to expect at higher altitudes, especially around potential price trends. Harvesting at higher elevations begins later, usually between August and September. The pre-planning phase helps us estimate expected payments to suppliers—though we must always take weather conditions, internal market trends, and fluctuating production costs under consideration too.
This planning is especially important for larger lots, like communal blends. These can be more challenging to curate in Peru compared to microlots as they require much more volume to build. Same goes for naturals. These need to be planned ahead of time as quality natural production in the North of Peru is not a common practice.
In Brazil, we also kick off our sourcing strategy early, aiming to buy the same amount or more than the previous year. This creates a commercial incentive for growth and ensures our planning is actionable. Instead of increasing the number of suppliers, we focus on boosting the volume purchased from our existing partners.
2. Information collection: gathering real-time data & determining price
As the harvest progresses, staying informed on local conditions is essential. Buyers gather information on everything from weather patterns to labour dynamics, building a comprehensive picture that will drive their pricing structure and purchasing decisions.
We regularly gather feedback from customers—both positive and constructive—and review unsold lots. Sharing this information with suppliers is an important part of the process, so they are also aware of how their products were received in the market.
In Colombia, Enki stays closely connected with farmers through weekly calls and farm visits, collecting insights from multiple sources to keep a clear view of production outlooks. His top priority is quality, with careful protocols for monitoring aspects like moisture content and water activity. To stay competitive and support a sustainable supply chain, we pay significantly above average market prices. Rather than following only the internal market price, we prioritise the production cost, ensuring we pay well above it.
When market prices are low, our differential rises, and when prices climb, our differential lowers. This approach means that farmers benefit even when prices dip, creating a more balanced income structure across price fluctuations.
Adham’s familiarity with Ethiopian suppliers enables open, candid conversations, especially regarding pricing. He encourages early contracts, which help lock in better quality and price points, even with challenges like rising red cherry prices or limited warehouse availability.
In Ethiopia, high-quality coffees start selling as early as December, so planning ahead is essential. Acting efficiently and quickly is key to securing the desired quality and price. There’s risk at every stage, but committing early in the season helps ensure the best balance between price and quality.
Pricing in Brazil is quite different to other origins, as producers are acutely aware of their production costs. Compared to other origins, the cost structure is clearer, with producers managing more aspects of production on a larger scale. While this can simplify some processes, it also introduces complexities due to higher costs. Producers are closely tied to market dynamics and often trade on differentials, which adds another layer of complexity when we typically buy at fixed prices. Our biggest challenge lies in making pricing fair across all producers. Understanding the people behind the coffee is crucial for maintaining these relationships.
3. Making First Selections: contracting, cupping, and quality control
With samples in hand, it’s time for our buyers to evaluate flavour profiles along with physical factors like moisture, water activity, and potential defects. The way samples are cupped varies by origin, as we examine type samples, offer samples, stock-lot samples, and pre-shipment samples—which can be slightly different in each context.
.jpeg)
It's important to note that type samples only provide a preliminary indication of what a lot may look like. While we don’t rely on them for final purchasing decisions, they help us understand upcoming quality levels and flavour profiles. Offer samples or stock-lot samples represent actual lots available for purchase, which we use to finalise contracts with suppliers. Pre-shipment samples (PSS) are cupped just before shipping, taken from the bags ready for departure. This final cupping stage ensures that the coffee we selected has preserved the same quality standards as what’s being shipped.
Contracting requires agility to secure volumes while maintaining quality control across multiple stages. If a coffee is rejected after a PSS cupping, depending on time constraints, it is either usually replaced with another lot that meets quality standards or is removed from the shipment altogether. This stage of the purchasing process requires a lot of follow ups with the suppliers to ensure timely delivery.
The team also keeps a close watch on current events that might impact market trends, shipping timelines, or production bottlenecks. If they anticipate delays in shipping or notice a drop in supply, they adjust quality control measures, often tightening standards at the PSS stage. Each situation is handled individually to ensure that adjustments are tailored to specific challenges as they arise.
Colombia
Early on in the season, Enki starts with pre-contracts or ‘placeholder’ contracts as a commitment sign, specifying product types and timelines. His main challenge is ensuring that bag markings are done in good time, as dry milling and shipping logistics in Colombia are generally smooth but can delay timelines if markings are off.
He notes that early in a supplier relationship, extensive cupping sessions help to calibrate expectations. As partnerships mature, the selection process becomes more straightforward, as suppliers learn to tailor their offerings to our requirements.
Ethiopia
When cupping type samples, Adham and our Ethiopia team focus on identifying the essential flavour profiles in each coffee, aiming for clean profiles. Type samples are usually cupped onsite at washing stations.
Stock-lot samples, which represent the actual lots available for purchase, are cupped in our Addis Ababa lab by our Lab Manager, Sisay. She personally extracts the samples from our suppliers’ warehouses for quality and traceability assurance. For these samples, the team looks for the same physical attributes they expect in pre-shipment samples, as they reflect the coffee that will ultimately be processed for export.
Once selections are made, Adham and the team handle the logistical details—confirming bag markings, shipping instructions, service contract numbers, and other documentation needed for processing and PSS approval. Upon PSS approval, the coffee’s physical measurements are verified, and export arrangements are finalised. For added quality control, the team generally avoids mixing washed and natural lots in the same container and aims to ship 2-3 lots per container.
Brazil
In Brazil, our approach is deeply rooted in the solid relationships cultivated over the years, allowing us to work smoothly with suppliers who already understand our quality and profile expectations. Brazil selections have a narrower focus, primarily on natural processed coffees and special preps like anaerobics or extended fermentations. A key partner in Brazil is Natalia Brito from Jaguara Coffee, with whom we’re completely aligned on our goals. Natalia’s ability to communicate our intentions, our vision, and our approach to producers is invaluable.
Peru
Rory follows a similar process with placeholder contracts before cupping offer samples. However, pricing adds another layer of complexity to contracting in Peru. “Direct conversations with suppliers reveal the intricacies and volatility of a global pricing system that shapes the livelihoods of farmers”, he emphasises.
When the C-Price goes up, producers may feel less drive to push for higher quality, as the price increase above the market rate doesn’t feel as significant. However, when the C-Price is low, there’s a stronger incentive for producers to focus on quality. Thanks to strong supplier relationships, many farmers know that their earnings will remain stable even when the C-Price fluctuates.
4. Shipment arrivals & post-season evaluation: closing the loop with feedback
When the coffee arrives at our EU warehouse in Belgium, it goes through another quality check by our procurement team and lab. This step is essential for providing suppliers with valuable feedback. If any quality issues come up, we get in touch directly with our suppliers, whose support is critical for resolving them quickly. Timing is key here, as we want any issues resolved before the coffee reaches our customers. This process usually goes smoothly, as quality issues are rare, though delays or re-routed shipments can sometimes affect how a coffee will land.
Cupping arrival samples allows us to see how the coffee’s profile develops from start to finish. When coffees are fresh, they can taste a bit tight or closed off, so this stage helps us understand how they’ve opened up.
This feedback loop is valuable not just for our customers but especially for our suppliers. It’s part of our post-season evaluations, where buyer feedback helps suppliers plan improvements for the next harvest. For instance, Enki frequently compares pre-shipment to arrival samples and often finds that the arrivals surpass initial expectations—a helpful insight for suppliers refining their processes.
Tracking where our coffees end up in the market is also an important step. Josh, for example, often orders his favourite Brazils from our customers to get a feel for how they taste in their final form. This firsthand insight gives us market context we can share with producers when planning for next season. We can then provide resources like roasters’ websites, photos of coffee bags, distribution details, and market information. We often conduct presentations to give them additional context and ensure that we distribute information fairly.
Joanne adds, “For me, one of the most important things in my role as a buyer is sharing information that empowers the producer—not just information that serves my needs. It’s about honest insights into how we’re experiencing the market and what our clients are looking for.”
The team also holds "archive cuppings" to evaluate how coffees age over time, typically about six months after arrival. These cuppings reveal any changes or potential deterioration in the coffee’s profile, offering valuable insights on how well each lot is holding up. This feedback is then shared with suppliers throughout the season, providing them with a clearer picture of how their coffee ages—whether it maintains its quality or starts to decline.
Our buyers’ dedication and expertise shine through at each step of sourcing. Their skill in adapting, building strong relationships, and cupping at every stage ensures we deliver coffee that meets the highest standards, adding value across the supply chain as transparently as possible.
