Landed cost: what green coffee really costs per kilo
The FOB price is where the cost of a green coffee starts, not where it ends. Build the landed cost line by line, then convert it to cost per roasted kilo before you compare offers.
7 min read Updated October 9, 2026
Two offers can look a pound apart per kilo and end up the same once delivered, or the other way round. Compare green coffee on a landed basis: everything it costs to get the coffee to your door and hold it until you roast it.
How to build it
- Start with the price at the Incoterm quoted (for example FOB per kg), and convert currency at a rate you can actually buy at, plus bank or payment fees.
- Add ocean or road freight per kg: the container or pallet cost divided by the net kilos of coffee in it.
- Add cargo insurance, usually a small percentage of the insured value.
- Add origin charges not included in the price, and destination port and terminal handling.
- Add customs clearance (agent fee per declaration divided by kilos). Duty on green coffee into Great Britain is 0%.
- Add haulage from the port, and warehousing for the months you will hold the coffee.
- Add finance: the interest cost, or the value to you, of paying months before you sell.
- Divide the total by the net kilos received. That is your landed cost per green kilo.
- Divide by (1 minus roast loss) to get green cost per roasted kilo.
Worked example
Worked example
Landed cost per green kg, worked example for a pallet shipped direct
- Origin price (FOB), converted£6.4086%
- Currency and payment fees£0.101%
- Ocean freight£0.304%
- Insurance£0.041%
- Port, handling and clearance£0.223%
- Haulage to the roastery£0.122%
- Storage, three months£0.091%
- Finance, four months£0.132%
Landed cost per green kg£7.40
Illustration only, built on assumed figures for one shared pallet. Freight and handling per kg fall sharply when shipping a full container. At 16% roast loss, £7.40 per green kg becomes about £8.81 per roasted kg.
In this example the coffee costs £7.40 per kilo landed, about 16% more than its FOB price. On a small shipment the fixed costs per declaration and per delivery weigh heavily; on a full container they shrink. That is why buying through an importer, who spreads those costs across many buyers, is often competitive for small volumes.
Compare offers fairly
Before you choose
- Convert every offer to landed cost per green kg delivered to you
- Then to cost per roasted kg at that coffee's roast loss
- Note payment timing: paying earlier costs money
- Note who carries quality and transit risk
- Check minimum quantities and whether you can use them in time
Where Roastnet helps
Questions roasters ask
- What is landed cost for coffee?
- The total cost of green coffee delivered to your premises: purchase price plus currency costs, freight, insurance, handling, clearance, haulage, storage and finance, divided by the kilos received.
- Is there duty in the landed cost of green coffee in the UK?
- Not on green, not decaffeinated coffee: the UK Global Tariff rate is 0%. Customs clearance fees and handling still apply.
Official sources
Rules change. These sources were checked on October 9, 2026; always confirm the current position with the body that publishes them before you act.
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