What is a green coffee trader?

A green coffee trader buys and sells green coffee as a commercial activity, typically without roasting it. Traders may operate at various points in the supply chain - buying from exporters at origin, selling to importers in consuming countries, or facilitating transactions between producers and buyers who might not otherwise connect. Some traders specialise in specific origins or grades; others deal in volume across a broad range of coffees.

The trader's role is to provide liquidity and market access - connecting sellers who need to move coffee with buyers who need supply, often bridging information and logistical gaps between different parts of the world. Large trading houses like Ecom, Volcafe, and Sucafina handle significant volumes of both commodity and specialty green coffee. Smaller specialty traders focus on curated lots and relationship sourcing.

The distinction between trader, importer, and broker is not always clean - many companies perform multiple roles simultaneously. What matters for buyers is understanding where in the chain their supplier sits and what value they're adding: a trader who sources directly from producers and publishes farm gate prices is a very different proposition to one who aggregates commodity lots for volume trade.