You're quoting retail "street price" for the commodity you're shipping
in bulk. That makes no sense at all.

Coffee that sells for $10 a pound roasted up here goes for $2 a pound
unroasted, in 1320 lb pallets delivered here in New England. In
Central/South America that would be $1 a pound or less. Essentially,
the price doubles every time it passes through a hand or is processed.

Even though I buy in small lots, 2 to 5 pounds, because I buy
unroasted green bean I pay only half of the "street price." For
instance, I just bought Kona direct from the farmer for $13/lb
delivered. When I buy from a small lot distributer he's making a 100%
markup, as did the broker that sold to him.

BTW, the "organic coffee" market is a bit of a scam. Most small
farmers are close to being organic because they do not typically use
significant amounts of chemicals. They simply can't afford them, and
they are willing to do the manual work to properly manage the farm.
However, they are financially unable to take the fields out of
production for the three years to be certified organic. However,
large investors can clearcut a rain forest, usually in Peru, and have
it declared organic because is it virgin soil. The quality is not
particularly good. If you buy "Organic Blend" it means there is a
small amount of quality beans to give it some flavor, but the bulk is
low quality grown in a clear cut rain forest.



* Joe wrote, On 3/6/2007 7:03 PM:
On Mar 6, 5:05 pm, "Bill" wrote:
20 tonnes of cargo seems a bit much for her. But at 12 dollars a pound
I see's 200K profit per trip.
That much? I'm just curious how you came to those numbers. It seems
that a small coffee company could do quite well with much profit. If
they make say 4 trips a year and get a good loyal following they could
have a nice year. I have heard of people that really like coffee
buying it from special Hawaiian distributors and paying something like
15-20 a pound. As long as its good coffee I don't see how this could
be such a bad idea.

Bill

Ok 20 US tons of coffee = 40,000 pounds.

40,000 X 12 dollars a pound = 480,000 dollars retail

X 6 trips a year = 2,880,000.00

Crew 150K yr including food
Insurance 30K yr
Coffee investment 600K-800K (looking at a futures mkt, better to cut a
deal with a grower)
Boat maintance 10-20K yr
Pkg & Sales shipping facility 75K
Fuel 3000
Coffee roasting ect?

We will just round it off a 1.4 million operating expenses

That leaves 1,450,000.00 profit, or at 6 trips a year 241,666.66
profit a trip.

Would you like to invest ;0) ?

Joe