What is a container load of green coffee?

The standard shipping container in green coffee is a 20-foot dry container - often written as 20ft or TEU (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Unit). It typically holds 275 to 325 bags of green coffee, most commonly 60kg bags, working out to roughly 17–19 metric tonnes per container.

For context: if you're buying 10 bags of a Kenyan AA from an importer, your coffee is sharing a container with dozens of other buyers' orders - that's a consolidated or LCL (less than container load) shipment. Larger roasters buying at volume will eventually reach the point where a full container of one or two origins makes financial sense - you trade the flexibility of smaller orders for a lower per-bag landed cost.

Understanding container capacity matters when you're planning volume. An importer quoting you a price for "FCL" means they're filling that container for you specifically.