Ask a first-time Canadian buyer what worries them about importing green coffee from Indonesia and most say the same word: tariffs. That’s the wrong worry. Green coffee enters Canada duty free under HS code 0901.11, and unroasted beans are also exempt from GST at the border as a basic food product. The money that actually moves on a first container comes from two other decisions: whether you buy FOB or CIF, and whether your minimum order quantity matches what you can actually sell or cup through before the next harvest lands. This guide walks through all three, in the order they’ll actually cost or save you money.
Last updated: July 2026
Do You Pay Tariffs Importing Green Coffee from Indonesia to Canada?
No. Green, unroasted coffee beans classified under HS code 0901.11 enter Canada at a 0% duty rate under the Most-Favoured-Nation tariff, and they’re also exempt from GST at the border because unroasted coffee is treated as a basic grocery item under the Excise Tax Act. Canada doesn’t grow coffee commercially, so there’s no domestic crop to protect and no reason for Ottawa to tax the raw bean.
That zero-tariff status is specific to green, unroasted coffee. The moment beans are roasted, ground, flavored, or repackaged for retail, different rules and different Safe Food for Canadians labeling requirements apply, and GST becomes payable at the point of sale. Buyers who source roasted coffee sometimes assume the same duty-free status carries over. It doesn’t, and it’s a common enough mix-up that we flag it on every first quote we send a Canadian buyer. If you want the underlying classification logic, our guide to HS codes for coffee beans breaks down how green, roasted, and decaffeinated coffee get sorted into different tariff lines. CBSA’s own Customs Tariff schedule is the authoritative source if you want to verify the current rate against your specific tariff item before you sign a contract.
Because the tariff line is genuinely a non-issue, the real cost variables on a Canada-bound shipment are your Incoterm choice and your order size, both covered below. If you’re comparing Indonesia against other origins, the Trump-era tariffs reshaping global coffee markets show what US buyers are dealing with instead. Canadian buyers don’t carry that exposure, which is one reason Indonesian volume into Canada has been climbing while US-bound orders get renegotiated.
What CBSA and CFIA Actually Require Beyond the Zero Tariff
A zero duty rate doesn’t mean zero paperwork. Every commercial importer needs a CBSA business number and must be registered on the CARM Client Portal, which now centralizes how duties, taxes, and import declarations get processed. Separately, the shipment has to clear the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s food safety rules, since coffee counts as a food under the Food and Drugs Act.
Here’s the part most guides skip. Unprocessed green coffee beans are listed in Schedule 1 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, which means many green coffee importers don’t need a Safe Food for Canadians (SFC) licence at all, the licence that roasters bringing in flavored or packaged retail coffee usually do need. If you’re a roastery buying green and roasting domestically, that’s one entire compliance step you can likely skip. If you plan to import already-roasted or private-label retail bags, budget time and a broker for SFCR licensing instead.
What you do need regardless: a commercial invoice with country of origin stated, a packing list, a bill of lading, and, depending on the shipment, a phytosanitary certificate confirming the beans are free of regulated pests. None of this is exotic. It’s the same documentation set that clears green coffee into any developed market, and a competent customs broker handles the CARM side of it in a single onboarding call. CFIA’s own step-by-step food import guide and the Safe Food for Canadians licensing tool are worth bookmarking before your first shipment, since they’re updated as requirements change.
FOB vs CIF: What Each Term Actually Covers From Belawan to a Canadian Port
FOB (Free on Board) means the exporter’s responsibility ends once the coffee is loaded onto the vessel at the Indonesian port, typically Belawan for Sumatra-origin lots. Everything after that, ocean freight, marine insurance, destination port charges, customs clearance, and inland trucking to your roastery, is on you. CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) means the exporter pays the ocean freight and buys minimum cargo insurance on your behalf; you still handle destination charges, customs clearance, and inland delivery once the container reaches a Canadian port.
Neither term includes duty, because there isn’t any to include. The difference between them is who negotiates the freight and insurance, and, in most cases, whose margin sits inside that number. For the fuller mechanics, including where CFR fits between the two, our Incoterms for coffee trade explainer covers the full set.
| Cost component | FOB Belawan | CIF Vancouver/Montreal |
|---|---|---|
| Bean price | You pay | You pay |
| Ocean freight | You arrange and pay directly | Included, exporter’s negotiated rate |
| Cargo insurance | You arrange (or skip, at your own risk) | Included, minimum cover (Institute Cargo Clauses C) by default |
| Destination port charges (THC, D/O fees) | You pay | You pay |
| Customs clearance and CARM filing | You pay | You pay |
| Duty | None (0%) | None (0%) |
On a standard 20 ft container loaded with 320 bags of 60 kg green coffee (roughly 19,200 kg net), ocean freight typically runs somewhere in the range of 15 to 20 cents per kilogram depending on the season and route to a Canadian west coast port, with destination handling charges adding another few cents per kilo on top. Whether that freight component is cheaper booked by you (FOB) or by the exporter (CIF) depends entirely on whose forwarder relationship gets the better rate that month.
The Honest Trade-Off: Why CIF Can Beat FOB for a First-Time Canadian Buyer
Most sourcing guides tell you FOB is the smarter buy because you control the freight and usually pay less. In our experience, that’s true for buyers who already have a customs broker and forwarder relationship in Canada. It’s not automatically true for a first-time importer, and we’d argue that’s the more common Canadian buyer walking through this decision right now.
Here’s the honest version. FOB puts you in charge of booking ocean freight, arranging cargo insurance, and coordinating a customs broker who understands CARM registration, on a shipment you’ve never handled before. Miss a step, and the savings from a cheaper freight quote evaporate into a week of container demurrage sitting at a Vancouver terminal while paperwork gets sorted out. We warn every new Canadian client about exactly this scenario before they book their first container. CIF costs more on paper because the exporter’s margin is baked into the freight and insurance line. What it buys you is one fewer set of decisions to get wrong on a shipment where you don’t yet know what a normal customs delay looks like versus a problem one.
The trade-off doesn’t hold forever. Buyers who’ve cleared two or three containers and built a relationship with a broker they trust almost always move to FOB, because by then they know which forwarder quotes are fair and which corners not to cut. Before that point, FOB’s theoretical savings are exactly that: theoretical, until you’ve actually proven you can execute them.
MOQ: What “Minimum Order” Really Means Buying Indonesian Green Coffee
“Minimum order quantity” means something different at every stage of a buying relationship, and treating it as one fixed number is where a lot of first-time importers overcommit. A serious exporter should offer a ladder: a small paid cupping sample to confirm the lot tastes like the spec sheet says, a microlot for a limited retail run, a wholesale pallet once you trust the supplier, and a full container once volume justifies it.
| Order tier | Typical quantity | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Cupping sample | 1 kg | Confirming cup profile before you commit to anything larger |
| Microlot | 60 kg | Limited retail run, testing a new origin with customers |
| Wholesale | 350 kg | Regular restocking without container-scale commitment |
| Full container | 9 MT+ | Container-scale pricing, custom quote |
The story worth knowing here: a 1 kg cupping sample is roasted and cupped in perfect conditions, dry storage, controlled roast, careful cupping protocol, days after arrival. A 19-metric-ton container spends 30 to 45 days at sea, sits in a humid Belawan warehouse before that, and gets handled by three or four different crews before it reaches your roastery. The sample never perfectly predicts the container. Moisture can shift a point or two in transit, and a lot that cupped clean at 85 in Medan can show a stray defect after resting through a long ocean crossing. That’s not a reason to skip sampling. It’s a reason to ask any supplier what their moisture spec and defect tolerance are at the container level, not just what the sample scored.
What This Means for Canadian Roasters and Importers
So which buyer are you: a roastery placing its first Canada-bound order, or an established importer just adding Indonesia to an existing lineup? The answer changes the advice. If you’re a roastery placing your first Canada-bound order, the practical sequence is sample, then microlot, then wholesale, then container, in that order, and CIF pricing on the first one or two shipments while you build a broker relationship. If you’re already importing container volumes from another origin and adding Indonesia to your lineup, you likely already have the forwarder and broker in place to justify FOB from the start.
Either way, budget your landed cost as bean price plus freight plus insurance plus destination charges plus CARM/broker fees, not bean price plus a vague “shipping” line. Zero duty and zero import GST on green coffee genuinely simplify Canada’s math compared to markets with an active tariff schedule. Don’t let that simplicity mask the freight and MOQ decisions that still determine whether the container actually pencils out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I pay import duty on green coffee beans from Indonesia to Canada?
No. Green, unroasted coffee beans (HS code 0901.11) enter Canada at a 0% duty rate under the Most-Favoured-Nation tariff, and they’re also exempt from GST at the point of import as a basic grocery item. Roasted or flavored coffee follows different rules.
Do I need a Safe Food for Canadians licence to import green coffee?
Usually not. Unprocessed green coffee beans fall under Schedule 1 of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, which typically exempts them from needing an SFC licence. Roasting, flavoring, or repackaging for retail sale in Canada usually does require one.
What’s the difference between FOB and CIF for coffee imports?
FOB means the exporter’s responsibility ends once the coffee is loaded on the ship in Indonesia, and you arrange freight, insurance, and destination clearance yourself. CIF means the exporter pays ocean freight and buys minimum cargo insurance on your behalf, but you still handle destination charges and customs clearance.
How much green coffee fits in a 20 ft container?
A standard 20 ft container typically holds around 320 bags of 60 kg green coffee, roughly 19,200 kg net, depending on bag dimensions and how densely the lot packs.
What’s a typical MOQ for Indonesian green coffee?
It depends on the stage of the relationship. Reputable exporters usually offer a 1 kg cupping sample, a 60 kg microlot for testing, a 350 kg wholesale tier, and full containers at 9 MT and above with custom quoting.
Getting Indonesian Green Coffee to Your Canadian Roastery
Whatever supplier you buy from, ask for the current crop year, the moisture and defect spec at the container level (not just the sample score), and whether they quote FOB or CIF as their default. If you’re placing your first Canada-bound order, Indonesia Specialty Coffee ships 1 kg cupping samples of the lots we export from Sumatra, Bali, and Toraja: request a sample or see our current pricelist.
