✉️ This story was featured in this week’s Coffee News Club
👋 Get the Coffee News Club newsletter in your inbox weekly—sign up.
Coffee has become a target for theft as the commodity price surges. Six months ago, we brought you news of coffee cherries being stolen right off the branch in Uganda—now shipments of green coffee are being targeted.
For Reuters, Marcelo Teixeira reports that green coffee bags have been stolen during transport in the United States while people are taking coffee directly from farms in Vietnam and Brazil.
In January, 500 bags of coffee worth over $200,000 were stolen from a farm in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. In the U.S., fake transportation companies have committed “dozens of thefts in the last year,” according to Todd Costley of Hartley Transportation—the fraudulent companies claimed they could transport coffee cheaper than competitors.
“Importers should be careful about who they hire,” Costley said. “Once they get the coffee, they disappear.”
In February, Zachary Ray of Desert Sun Coffee Roasters in Colorado tried to arrange a coffee delivery to Desert Sun’s roastery. The delivery was intercepted by an individual pretending to be a broker, he wrote in a story for Daily Coffee News. The broker hijacked the order and essentially held the coffee delivery hostage, attempting to extort money from Ray.
Teixeira reports that some importers are putting tracking devices on their shipments. Ray advised roasters to remain vigilant when planning transportation, make sure insurance coverage is current, and have written agreements with brokers.
Read the full story from Reuters here.
