Coffee Import Delivery Terms: What CIF Plus IOR and CIP Plus IOR Cover
By Caffé Premium
Coffee import delivery terms get agreed in a single line on a quote and then shape everything that follows: who books the freight, who insures the cargo, who files with customs, and who absorbs the loss if a container sits at the port for a week. Most first-time buyers skim that line because it looks like jargon. It is the part of the quote that decides what you are actually responsible for.
Caffé Premium quotes on four terms. Two are the standard buyer-leg terms where Caffé Premium arranges carriage, and two are for buyers who would rather arrange it themselves. This post sets out what each one covers.
The two coffee import delivery terms used as standard
CIF plus IOR is the ocean term. Caffé Premium arranges and pays for carriage to the named US port and arranges marine insurance for the voyage. The IOR element means InGain LLC d/b/a Caffé Premium also acts as Importer of Record for CBP entry, filing the entry and clearing the goods on its own continuous customs bond.
CIP plus IOR is the air equivalent, used for samples, trial lots, and pallet volume. Caffé Premium arranges and pays for carriage to the named destination and arranges insurance, and again acts as Importer of Record for entry.
The practical effect of both is the same: the coffee arrives cleared, and the roastery never registers as its own Importer of Record or posts its own bond.
Where risk transfers, which is not where delivery ends
This is the part that surprises people, and it is worth stating plainly because it is a genuine feature of these terms rather than a quirk of any one supplier.
Under CIF, the seller pays for carriage and insurance to the destination port, but risk passes to the buyer when the goods are loaded on board the vessel at origin. Under CIP, risk passes when the goods are handed to the first carrier. In both cases the seller is paying for transport beyond the point where risk has already transferred.
That is exactly why the insurance element matters and why it is built into both terms rather than left as an option. The cover is what makes the gap between the risk transfer point and the delivery point manageable for the buyer. If a coffee shipment is damaged mid-voyage, the claim runs through that policy.
The two buyer-arranged alternatives
FOB is the ocean alternative. The seller delivers the coffee on board the vessel at the origin port and the buyer takes it from there, arranging ocean freight, insurance, and US customs entry. FOB pricing is lower on paper because it stops at the ship's rail.
FCA named airport is the air alternative. The seller delivers to the carrier or terminal at the named airport and the buyer's own forwarder handles the rest.
Both suit a buyer who already has a freight forwarder they trust and a customs setup that works. Neither suits a roastery importing for the first time, because the saving on the quote is paid for in work and risk the buyer has no infrastructure to absorb. Other terms can be discussed and agreed in writing case by case.
What changes between ocean and air, beyond transit time
Two filing requirements turn on the mode of transport rather than the Incoterm, and buyers often assume they apply to everything.
Importer Security Filing, commonly called ISF or 10 plus 2, applies to ocean cargo only. It does not apply to air, truck, or rail. The importer data must be filed at least 24 hours before the cargo is loaded aboard the vessel at the foreign port, and CBP assesses liquidated damages of 5,000 dollars per violation, capped at 10,000 dollars per filing, for late or inaccurate filings. On CIF plus IOR shipments this filing sits with Caffé Premium as Importer of Record.
Harbor Maintenance Fee is also ocean only, charged at 0.125 percent of cargo value with no minimum or maximum. Air shipments pay no HMF. Merchandise Processing Fee applies to both: 0.3464 percent of entered value, with a minimum of 34.58 dollars and a maximum of 670.86 dollars per entry for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026. Those caps are adjusted annually, so check the current figures before relying on them in a landed cost model.
Duty on green coffee, and why the usual one-line answer needs a date on it
Green coffee classifies under HTS 0901.11.00, and the general rate of duty for that heading is free. That has been the stable position for years and it is why green coffee is so often described as a zero duty import.
What changed is everything sitting on top of that rate. Through 2025 and into 2026, additional tariffs applied under emergency authority, were then lifted for most agricultural goods including coffee in November 2025, were struck down by the Supreme Court in February 2026 when it held that the statute did not authorize tariffs at all, were briefly replaced by a temporary global import surcharge under a different statute, and that surcharge ended in July 2026.
So the current position, as of October 2026, is that green coffee enters at the free rate under 0901.11.00 with no additional surcharge. The point worth taking from the last twelve months is not the number. It is that any quote, landed cost model, or article stating a duty figure needs a date attached, and the figure needs checking against current CBP rates at the time you are actually buying.
Reading a quote with this in mind
When you compare two quotes on different terms, you are not comparing two prices. A FOB figure and a CIF plus IOR figure describe different scopes of work, and the gap between them is ocean freight, insurance, entry filing, bond coverage, and the fees above.
The useful comparison is landed cost per kilogram at your warehouse door, built the same way for both. A quote that looks 12 percent cheaper on a term that stops at the origin port is not cheaper until you have priced the rest of the journey and decided who in your business is going to manage it.
Request landed pricing on whichever term fits at caffepremium.com/get-a-quote, or read how the process runs end to end at caffepremium.com/company/our-process.
Comments