Operating both as brokers and direct importers in the green coffee market, we are committed to delivering services that include the selection of origin, information management, mediation, and sale of green coffee both in the national and international markets.
Our main strength is our relationship with its origins: we work with all the most important green coffee exporters on a daily basis and cooperate with producers that share our passion for high-quality coffee.
In order to deliver up-to-date information and advice to our clients, we keep constantly updated and gather news from our contacts worldwide on a daily basis.
Our objective is to become trusted advisors and business partners to our clients. One of our team’s main strengths is its founder members who created Green Elite’s image of great professionalism and reliability thanks to over twenty years of experience and charisma. Alongside this are our junior members who increase their professionalism day after day, boosting innovation, whilst bringing new ideas and widening the company’s perspective for the future.
With the time spent working together, our bond with each and every one of these producers has grown, constantly renewing an open and confidential relationship, that is our strength and greatest pride.
We cooperate with our suppliers as though we are partners, so that we can supervise all the coffee processing steps from origin, and take care of all the shipment procedures, as well as delivery upon arrival to its final destination.
As traders, we work with two different parties from start to finish providing a customized service to each:
– Purchasing services for our clients
– Sales services for our suppliers
With supply and demand that are brought together from geographical regions that are far apart, we always keep our focus on feasibility and convenience for every operation, and support clients in every phase of the transaction.
We meticulously follow all contracts through each and every step.
Our supervision from the very start, to the arrival of the containers on the buyers’ premises, means that our clients do not have to concern themselves with any part that stands between their choice of a quality and coffee withdrawal at destination.
Should any problem occur, at any time, during this process, we are able to ensure the immediate intervention and resolution of the situation, thanks to our industry-specific expertise and professionalism.
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Coffee is the product of the union of the sun, soil, water, and the painstaking care taken by man. It is from the very beginning in the plant nurseries that man plays a crucial role in the development and growth of the coffee plants.
Before being planted in soil, the small coffee seedlings need to stay in a monitored environment (the plant nursery) to go through the pre-germination and germination phases.
Pre-germination occurs by placing coffee seeds between two moist jute bags. Once germinated, the seeds are sowed, in small containers, in a plant nursery. These nurseries need to have strictly monitored conditions and providing plants with the right amount of direct exposure to the sun as well as – most importantly during this phase – to shade.
Once this initial and most delicate phase is over, the coffee plants are exposed to direct sunlight for two months: during this time, the trunk becomes woody and only then can they be transplanted to its final location.
The Coffee Plant is a tropical plant which is best grown in the belt between the two Tropics, at altitudes that range from 200 and 2000 meters, and temperatures between 15 and 25° C, in a warm and wet environment where heavy rain alternates with dry seasons.
There are many species of the existing Coffea plants, but only two are significant – economically speaking – for coffee production: the Coffea Arabica, or simply Arabica, and the Coffea canephora, commonly known as Robusta coffee.
Grown at high altitude, Arabica coffee is floral or fruity in character, quite acidic, with a low caffeine content. The highest-quality Arabica coffee is produced in the equatorial belt, between 1,000 and 2,000 meters where bright daylight and low night temperatures slow its ripening, and favour the germination of hard and aromatic beans.
Robusta Coffee – characterized by a more intense bitter taste and stronger body – grows in flatter, warmer and wetter areas, at altitudes between 100 and 800 meters.
Coffee production is spread over three wide geographical areas.
During their initial stage in plantations, coffee plants have large bright green leaves, but no sign of their distinctive red fruits, and grow vertical roots that develop several meters beneath the ground.
Plants do not start producing their small round cherries before four months, that, once ripened, turn bright red.
It is from flowers that, after a few months, fruits – also known as cherries or drupes – develop.
Coffee flowers have a characteristic white colour and give off a delicate jasmine scent. A few days after blossoming, flowers drop their petals: then, 6 to 9 months later for the Arabicas, and 9 to 11 months for the Robustas, flowers develop into fruits (the so-called “setting”).
It is from cherries that coffee plants get their typical orange-red colour.
Cherries on the same branch can ripen at different stages. Initially green, they turn orange-red once ripening is complete.
Drupes are 2-seeded fruits wrapped in a mucilage, which in turn is wrapped in a red and fleshy pulp. The two seeds – that will form the “green coffee” – are covered with a thick and white-ish skin called parchment (or pergamino) that functions as protection, while the innermost layer is a silver skin that perfectly adheres to the bean.
Arabica green coffee beans have an S-shaped center cut, while Robusta beans have a straight center cut, a more rounded shape and a pale green color with grey shades.
Picking is carried out by hand, so that only the ripe cherries are selected. This approach involves 6 to 8 pickings because even on one branch, drupes can have ripened to a different extent. Thanks to this technique, only the best beans are selectively picked, leaving aside those too green and astringent or too ripe and fermented.
The stripping method involves the removal of all fruits from the tree, regardless of their state of maturity. The beans are removed from the branches and collected on canvases placed on the ground. It is then necessary to separate fruits from leaves, sticks and stones.
As well as these methods, over the last few decades, mechanized methods have also developed, especially where the landscape is relatively flat and the coffee fields even. The so-called mechanical method uses machines that shake the fruits off the branches.
Wet process
When coffee is wet processed, beans are:
– Pulped: the fruits are processed by machines that immerse them in a continuous flow of water, breaking their skin and pulp, and releasing the seeds.
– Fermented: the seeds, still covered with pulp mucilage and parchment, are immersed in water for 1 to 3 days, so that the mucilage ferments and breaks down.
– Washed: beans are washed in small channels by the use of flowing water
– Dried: coffee beans can be dried in the sun or using machines
– Hulled: beans are processed through a friction, roller or impact huller that gently removes the parchments without damaging them. They are then sorted by size through a series of sieves.
Wet processed coffees are sometimes referred to as ‘washed’ coffees, also known as Milds, i.e. top quality Arabicas.
Dry process
The dry method consists of drying the cherries on large surfaces, in the fresh air, for some days. When this method is used, the pulp is not removed in advance. Cherries are left to dry in the sun and regularly turned over with a rake to prevent their fermentation. It is also possible to carry out this process in ovens, with a quicker and more certain, even though qualitatively worse, outcome. When the pulp is dry, beans are hulled: they pass through a machine that breaks and removes their skin and parchment. Then they pass through screens and are separated from pulp and skin, and then sorted by size: from small to big, beans pass through the screen and are classified by size (“screen”).
Coffees processed with the dry method – much quicker and less expensive than wet processing – are referred to as “unwashed” or “natural” coffees.
Coffee is mainly transported to the importing countries by ship. It is transported in 60 or 69 kilo jute bags and loaded onto containers. Bags are arranged to make the most of the container, but in a way that air can continue to circulate among the bags, thus preventing the occurrence of mold, condensation, or unpleasant odors.
GEORGES COURTELINE
Unione Italiana Food
The ICE – Coffee C ® Futures US
www.theice.com – Coffee-C-Futures
The ICE – Robusta Coffee Futures
www.theice.com – Robusta-Coffee-Futures
ITALIAN CHAMBER OF ARBITRATION FOR COFFEE (C.A.I.C.)
Founded in 1977, its objective is to settle any litigation (including quality claims) that may arise on contracts concluded under the European Coffee Contract provisions or one of the three National contracts.
Those who may become members of the C.A.I.C. are Italian and foreign companies in the coffee industry, subject to the approval of the Executive Council.
The main authorities of the Association are the Executive Council of the Chamber of Arbitration, made up of dealers experienced in the coffee market, that guarantees the regular functioning of the institutions and of the Arbitration Panels; the Arbitration Panel, formed in accordance with the Arbitration Statute, has the task to regulate participation to the Chamber of Arbitration’s activity and plan the arbitration procedures. Those who may become Arbitrators belong to companies that are members of the C.A.I.C. Their application is subject to the Executive Council approval that verifies the person’s expertise.
SCA
The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) was originally founded to introduce specialty coffees into the American market with the commitment, enthusiasm, talent and deep knowledge of coffee. It was this Association that brought about the setting up of the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe in 1998. SCAE gathered members from all over the world that were striving for excellence in the coffee industry through research, education and communication. As a result, a wider consumption of coffee prepared with different methods – filtered, Turkish or espresso – was observed.
The national SCAE Chapters in Europe as well as overseas regularly organize activities and projects that endorse the culture of coffee.
MICHAIL BAKUNIN
Piazza del Monastero 2/1
16149 GENOVA
ITALY
CEO – Trader
Phone +39 010 4699378
Mobile +39 3355492253
Teams: Elio Vercelli – GEC
Junior Trader
elitecoffee@elitecoffee.it
simone@elitecoffee.it
Phone +39 010 4699378
Mobile +39 328 6262952
Teams: Simone Devoto – GEC
Junior Trader
Phone +39 010 4699378
Mobile +39 333 6872299
Teams: Pietro Giovinazzo – GEC
Logistic & Trading Assistant
Phone +39 010 4699378
Mobile +39 328 8876565
Teams: Giorgia Cecchi – GEC