Sourcing

Sourcing is a human effort

We buy from people, not from an offer list. Here's a window into how we work.

The numbers

Using our flagship, the Nasa Community Blend, grown by Nasa Indigenous families in Tierradentro, Cauca, Colombia.

US$5.67/lbWhat we pay the Liz-Andela family for the Nasa Community Blend (US$12.50/kg), as export-ready green coffee.
2.1×Today's C market, the commodity benchmark for the same export-ready green coffee.
10%+Above market: the minimum the Liz-Andela family pays their neighbours for the parchment in this blend.
2,750 kgOf the Nasa Community Blend bought this year, from one community.

Where your C$25 bag of the Nasa Community Blend goes

To the Liz-Andela familyC$5.08 · 20%What we pay for the green coffee in one 250g bag, after roast loss. They buy from their neighbours at 10%+ above market.
Getting it hereC$1.52 · 6%Air freight from Bogotá, insurance, export costs, trucking and duties.
Everything elseC$18.40 · 74%Roasting, packaging, our team, rent, shipping supplies and keeping the lights on.

What we pay vs the market

The Nasa Community Blend against the local market in Cauca and the C market in New York, all in US dollars per pound of green coffee. Both markets update every trading day.

What LULO pays for the Nasa Community Blend compared with the C market The Nasa Community Blend at US$5.67 per pound against the C market, most recently US$2.69 per pound. $0$1$2$3$4$5$6$7 Nasa Community Blend · US$5.67/lb C market · US$2.69/lbCauca local market · US$2.96/lb Sep 28, 2026 Nov 11, 2026

Last updated November 11, 2026 · C market: ICE Coffee "C" futures, front month, November 11 · Cauca: FNC reference price for parchment in Popayán, November 11

What the gap means

Right now we pay US$2.99/lb more than the C market for the Nasa Community Blend, or 2.1× the price most of the world's coffee is traded on.

It's a like-for-like comparison. Both prices are for export-ready green coffee, before it's shipped.

The local market in Cauca

Colombian farmers sell parchment, not green coffee. Every day the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros publishes a reference price per carga, 125 kg of dry parchment. In Popayán, Cauca, it's COP 2,000,625 per carga.

To compare it with everything else, we convert it to US dollars at the day's exchange rate (3297.07 COP per USD). We then convert it to green coffee using the federation's standard yield: 94 kg of parchment makes 70 kg of green. That gives US$2.96/lb. The Nasa Community Blend is 1.9× that.

Why we don't follow the screen

The C market moves with weather, currency and speculation, and a farmer selling into it usually receives less than the C price. Our price is set with the Liz-Andela family, not by the screen.

They buy parchment from their neighbours at a minimum of 10% above market, so the premium reaches the families who grow it.

The words we use

Coffee pricing has its own language. Here's ours, in plain terms.

Cherry
The fruit of the coffee tree. Each one holds two seeds, which become the beans you brew.
Parchment
The seed after the fruit is removed and dried, still inside a thin papery shell. Farmers often store and sell coffee this way.
Green coffee
Parchment that's been hulled, sorted and graded, ready to export and roast. Every price on our site is per kg or lb of green.
Farmgate price
What the farmer or their group is paid for their coffee. The number that matters most to the people who grow it.
FOB
"Free on board." The price once coffee is loaded at the port of origin, including milling, export paperwork and the exporter's margin.
C market
The ICE Coffee "C" futures price in New York, the global benchmark for arabica. Most commodity coffee is priced as the C plus or minus a small premium.
Exporter & importer
The companies that move coffee out of the origin country and into ours. Sometimes we do this ourselves. Sometimes partners do it for us.
Landed cost
Everything it takes to get green coffee to our roastery door: farmgate price, export, freight, insurance and duties.
Roast loss
Coffee loses about 13 to 16% of its weight as water evaporates in the roaster, so it takes more than 1 kg of green to make 1 kg of roasted.
Carga
Colombia's standard trading unit: 125 kg of dry parchment. Local prices are quoted per carga, in Colombian pesos.
Factor de rendimiento (FR)
How much parchment it takes to make a 70 kg bag of exportable green. The standard is 94 kg. A lower number means better quality and a higher price.
TRM
Colombia's official daily exchange rate, pesos per US dollar. We use it to convert local prices.
Quintal
A 46 kg bag of green coffee, about 100 lb, used across Central America, including Costa Rica.
Fanega
Costa Rica's measure of coffee cherry, which farmers are paid on. One fanega yields roughly one quintal (46 kg) of green.
Specialty coffee
Coffee scoring 80+ points on a 100-point scale. Everything we buy scores 85 or higher.