I need your advice, ideas, and knowledge in the import/export business.
Long story short I have family in Central America. My parents are starting a coffee and cacao plantation over there. And I have an uncle that already has a coffee plantation. He has 2 tons of coffee sitting in his warehouse because he does not know how to distribute the coffee. He also has all the machinery to process the coffee and pack it.
So I was thinking that I can start a coffee and cacao import/export business to the USA.
First I'll go trough CENTS and see how many boxes I can check off to see if this is a viable business to pursue.
1. Control
I will have control over the entire operation. From dealing with the farmers to selling the product. I'll be buying the coffee from many different farmers and I'll sale the coffee through my website and Amazon. If one farmer is not willing to sell me coffee I'll just go to another. If Amazon cancels my account I'll still have my website.
2. Entry
This one is a bit tricky so I won't check it. As we all know coffee and cacao are commodities. There are large corporations importing coffee into the USA. But it also has a high entry point because the countries that I'll be buying the coffee from talk Spanish. Someone who's not fluent in Spanish will have a hard time dealing with the farmers and laws of the country. But companies like Bodhi leaf coffee based in California import coffee from around the world. They have no problem not been fluent in all those different languages. So it might not be a high barrier to entry.
3. Need
Is there a need for another coffee/cacao exporter? After all these two products are commodities. But there is a need for high-quality coffee/cacao. The coffee most people are used to buying at the gas station tastes nothing like fresh coffee. Also, the cacao we are used to is low quality coffee from Africa. I'll have access to high-quality cacao native to Central America. I can sell the coffee to high-end cafes and restaurants. I can sell the cacao to gourmet chefs that need high-quality cacao beans. I was researching on cacao and came across a forum of chefs that have to order the cacao beans from Central America sometimes paying up to $500 just for ten pounds of high-quality whole cacao beans.
Skew Value
My skew value would be selling from farm to table. Dealing directly with the farmers and making sure they have high standards of growing organic beans.
4. Time
This might be hard to accomplish because I'll be dealing with a physical product.
5. Scale
Scaling should be easy because I'll be selling high-quality beans. So the profit margin should be high even if I'm not selling a lot of coffee.
The work I'll focus on is in digital marketing. I'll create the webpage myself and copywriting. Also, I'll do the marketing through google ads, Facebook ads, and social media management.
Once I get the ball rolling and see the profits coming in I'll start a cafe. Here in the USA and in Central America. That's where the profits will be higher because you'll be selling the coffee by the cup.
Let me know what's your opinion about this idea. I don't know anything about the import/export business so if you could link me to a good course on that I would appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Long story short I have family in Central America. My parents are starting a coffee and cacao plantation over there. And I have an uncle that already has a coffee plantation. He has 2 tons of coffee sitting in his warehouse because he does not know how to distribute the coffee. He also has all the machinery to process the coffee and pack it.
So I was thinking that I can start a coffee and cacao import/export business to the USA.
First I'll go trough CENTS and see how many boxes I can check off to see if this is a viable business to pursue.
1. Control
I will have control over the entire operation. From dealing with the farmers to selling the product. I'll be buying the coffee from many different farmers and I'll sale the coffee through my website and Amazon. If one farmer is not willing to sell me coffee I'll just go to another. If Amazon cancels my account I'll still have my website.
2. Entry
This one is a bit tricky so I won't check it. As we all know coffee and cacao are commodities. There are large corporations importing coffee into the USA. But it also has a high entry point because the countries that I'll be buying the coffee from talk Spanish. Someone who's not fluent in Spanish will have a hard time dealing with the farmers and laws of the country. But companies like Bodhi leaf coffee based in California import coffee from around the world. They have no problem not been fluent in all those different languages. So it might not be a high barrier to entry.
3. Need
Is there a need for another coffee/cacao exporter? After all these two products are commodities. But there is a need for high-quality coffee/cacao. The coffee most people are used to buying at the gas station tastes nothing like fresh coffee. Also, the cacao we are used to is low quality coffee from Africa. I'll have access to high-quality cacao native to Central America. I can sell the coffee to high-end cafes and restaurants. I can sell the cacao to gourmet chefs that need high-quality cacao beans. I was researching on cacao and came across a forum of chefs that have to order the cacao beans from Central America sometimes paying up to $500 just for ten pounds of high-quality whole cacao beans.
Skew Value
My skew value would be selling from farm to table. Dealing directly with the farmers and making sure they have high standards of growing organic beans.
4. Time
This might be hard to accomplish because I'll be dealing with a physical product.
5. Scale
Scaling should be easy because I'll be selling high-quality beans. So the profit margin should be high even if I'm not selling a lot of coffee.
The work I'll focus on is in digital marketing. I'll create the webpage myself and copywriting. Also, I'll do the marketing through google ads, Facebook ads, and social media management.
Once I get the ball rolling and see the profits coming in I'll start a cafe. Here in the USA and in Central America. That's where the profits will be higher because you'll be selling the coffee by the cup.
Let me know what's your opinion about this idea. I don't know anything about the import/export business so if you could link me to a good course on that I would appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
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