Ordering from North America

Since we began back in 1996, we’ve built up a portfolio of more than 180 different specialty coffees at our UK warehouse. This catalogue changes every week as new arrivals come in and other lines are sold out. In North America, we’ve been shipping coffee direct from origin only since 2006 and we’re steadily increasing our portfolio as we develop our customer base. Currently, we ship from Brazil, Central America and Sumatra to our warehouse, The Green Room, in Auburn (WA). For 2010, we will be expanding this range with direct shipments from Kenya, possibly Colombia and other specialty origins.

For customers in the USA and Canada, there is no minimum order size and we are happy to deliver less than full pallet orders. However, we can’t delivery less than full bag quantities. Your order may be any selection of coffees (full bag sizes). Most coffees are prepared in standard 60kg (132lbs) jute bags. Some coffees are also available in smaller 20-35kg bags or vacuum packed cartons.

We’re happy to advise you on planning your pallet to include a selection of new and recent arrivals, single origin coffees and components for espresso blends.

Customers in Canada may also chose to order from our entire portfolio in the UK warehouse for delivery by sea or air. We have negotiated competitive rates with a number of freight forwarders. We regret that, due to customs regulations, we are unable to offer deliveries out of the UK for customers in the USA.

Start-up roasters

Mercanta was established in 1996 specifically to supply the growing number of small specialty roasters. We’ve worked with many new and start-up operations worldwide and have been very pleased to see these new companies flourish.

You may not yet have your roaster installed and operational. In fact, in our experience, it can take 3-6 months longer that planned before your roaster is built, delivered, installed and operational.

We manage our inventory very carefully and our coffees turn over very quickly. There’s little sense in sending you a detailed price list at this early stage as many of the coffee will have sold before you are ready top place your first order. But these price ranges will be useful for you in your business planning:

• You will be able to find a selection of commodity green coffees from importers at around $1.50 per lb. If you spend a little more, you may find green beans listed as ‘specialty’ grade at a little under $2.00 per lb. These are more likely to be higher quality commercial grades and not genuine specialty coffees
• From around $2.50 per lb and upwards, however, a wide selection of traceable, high quality specialty grade coffee is available. Most of our coffees are available in the $2.25 - $3.00 per lb range though prices for micro lots, exotic origins and award-winning Cup of Excellence auction coffees can be significantly more

Around 3-4 weeks before your roaster is installed and you’re ready to start roasting, please get in touch and we can provide you with a full and up to date listing of all our green coffees.

For first-time customers, our terms are ‘payment in advance’ of delivery. We are happy to discuss credit terms for future orders.