All About Coffee Part 60

To do this, the floor of the warehouse is chalked off into squares, as was done on the dock; but now the numbers, or symbols, in each s.p.a.ce indicate the chops in each invoice, or consignment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TESTER AT WORK, BUSH TERMINAL, NEW YORK]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOADING LIGHTERS, BUSH DOCKS, NEW YORK]

The importer naturally is eager to sample the newly arrived coffee.

Sampling is generally done by trained warehouse employees, who are equipped with coffee triers, sampling instruments resembling apple-corers, which they thrust into the bags. The instrument is hollow, and the coffee flows into the hand of the sampler, who places each sample in a paper bag which is marked to indicate the chop. The total sample of each chop usually consists of about ten pounds of coffee, which the importer compares with the exporter's sample.

When sampling for trade delivery, about two-thirds of the bags in a chop are tried. But when sampling for delivery on Coffee Exchange contract, every bag must be tested, and care taken that each chop is uniform in color, kind, and quality. Coffee for Exchange delivery must be stored in a warehouse licensed by the Exchange; and the warehouseman is responsible for the uniformity of grade of each chop.

When approximately ninety percent of the cargo has been unloaded and stored, the warehouse issues what has become known as the "last bag notice." In the majority of cases the coffee has been sold before arrival; and on receipt of the last bag notice, the importer can transfer ownership of the coffee and save interest.

In a cargo of 75,000 to 100,000 bags of coffee that have been hurriedly loaded in the producing country and unloaded at destination in equal haste, a small portion of the cargo is almost certain to be damaged.

Generally the damage is slight. If a bag is torn or stained, the coffee is placed in a new bag. If the contents have become mildewed, the damaged portion is taken to a warehouse for reconditioning; while the sound coffee is thoroughly aired to remove the odor and is then placed in a clean bag. The reconditioned lot is put into a separate package and forwarded to the buyer with a "reconditioning statement" that shows what has been done.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW TERMINAL SYSTEM ON STATEN ISLAND

On the left are three piers of the Pouch Terminal at Clifton; on the right, four of the American Dock Terminal at Tompkinsville; and between these are thirteen piers of the new Munic.i.p.al Terminal]

Bags that have become torn in transit, and parts of their contents spilled, are called "slacks." These are weighed as they arrive on the dock by a licensed public weigher; and a sufficient quant.i.ty of the coffee remaining on the floor of the ship's hold is put into the bag to make it of the proper weight. The expense of reconditioning and rebagging is generally borne by the marine insurance companies. When the entire cargo is unloaded, and the slacks and bad-order bags are weighed and marked, the warehouseman tallies up the records of his clerks, and renders a corrected chop list to the consignee.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOTOR TRACTOR MOVING COFFEE AT THE BUSH TERMINAL DOCKS, BROOKLYN]

_Electric Tractors and Trailers_

Another district along the water front of Brooklyn where coffee is discharged in large quant.i.ties is that between Thirty-third and Forty-fourth Streets, south Brooklyn, occupied by the Bush Terminal Stores. This plant is laid out with railroad spurs on every pier, so that its own transfer cars, or the cars of the railroads running out of New York, can be run into the sheds of the docks where coffee is being discharged from the ships. The methods employed by the Bush Terminal are similar to those just described, except that all the coffee is handled by electrically-manipulated cars or trucks, in some instances the powerful little tractors hauling many "trailers" to various parts of the yards.

_Handling Charges at New York_

Before the World War, it cost approximately one-half cent a bag to handle green coffee from the vessel to warehouse and in storage in New York. The rate advanced nearly one hundred percent in the latter part of 1919, then dropped slightly, although it is still (1922) above the pre-war price. Other handling charges are shown in the following tabulation:

COFFEE HANDLING CHARGES AT NEW YORK

Pre-war prices Present prices Cents per bag Cents per bag (132 lbs.) (132 lbs.) Storage 3 to 4 5 to 8 Labor 3 to 4 5 to 8 Sampling for damage 1 1 Cleaning 35 20 Dumping and mixing 10 15 Dumping and airing 10 15 Shoveling and airing 10 15 Transferring coffee from floor to floor 4 8 Marking 1 1 Labor at vessel $9 per M $12.50 to $15 per M

The warehous.e.m.e.n in 1919 charged four cents per bag for loading into railroad cars. This charge was discontinued in 1921. The cost of weighing increased from two and one-half cents per bag in 1914 to four and one-half cents in 1919, and then dropped to the present price of three to three and one-half cents. Other handling charges at the port of New York are:

OTHER HANDLING CHARGES, 1922 Cents per bag (132 lbs.) Drawing samples, each 10 lbs 17 to 20 Grading for variation 4 Matching in 12 Reducing or evening off slack 9 Transferring to new bag 10 Trucking to weigher in store 3 Collecting and preparing sweepings 25 Delivering sample below Ca.n.a.l Street 75 Each additional sample 10 to 15 New bags 15 Old bags 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNLOADING COFFEE WITH MODERN CONVEYOR, NEW ORLEANS]

A plan intended to cut down handling costs in New York, and to expedite deliveries, was inaugurated by the National Coffee Roasters a.s.sociation at the beginning of 1920. The a.s.sociation formed a freight-forwarding bureau, and invited members to have their coffee shipments handled through the bureau. The charges for forwarding direct importations are two cents per bag. Cartage charges vary from six to eighteen cents per hundred pounds. Claims are handled without charge.

_The Seven Stages of Transportation_

The foregoing story has taken the reader through the seven most direct routes that lead from the plantation to the roaster: first, from the patio to the railroad or river; then to the city of export; into the warehouses there; then into the steamers; out of them, and upon the wharf at the port of destination; from the wharf into the warehouses; and, finally, from the warehouses to the roasting rooms. It will be understood that in some instances where the plantation is hidden away in the mountains, it is necessary to relay the coffee; and again, at this end, the coffee is very often transhipped. In such cases, more handlings are required.

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNLOADING A COFFEE SHIP BY BLOCK AND TACKLE AT THE PORT OF NEW ORLEANS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: IN FOREGROUND--LOADING COFFEE BY MEANS OF AN AUTOMATIC TRAVELING-BELT CONVEYOR, ON GOVERNMENT BARGES FOR ST. LOUIS]

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE-HANDLING SCENES ON THE WHARVES AT NEW ORLEANS]

_Handling Coffee at New Orleans_

Coffee ships are unloaded in New Orleans, the second coffee port in the United States, in about the same general manner as in New York, with the important exception that the block-and-tackle system for transferring the bags from the ship to the dock has been largely supplanted by the automatic traveling-belt conveyor system. Another notable feature is New Orleans' steel-roofed piers, whereon the coffee can be stored until ready for shipment to the interior. Because of the cla.s.s of labor--mostly negro--employed in unloading ships, New Orleans has found it expedient to retain the old flag system to indicate the part of the pier where each mark of coffee is to be piled as taken from the vessel.

These little flags vary in shape, color and printed pattern, each representing a particular lot of coffee, and they are firmly fixed at the part of the pier where those bags should be stacked. Trained checkers read the marks on the bags as the laborers carry them past, and tell the carrier where the bag should be placed. To the illiterate laborers the checker's cries of "blue check," "green ball," "red heart,"

"black hand," and the like, are more understandable than such indications as letters or numbers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SHOWING HOW COFFEE IS STORED UNDER STEEL-COVERED SHEDS AT NEW ORLEANS]

_Handling Coffee at San Francisco_

San Francisco ranks third in the list of United States coffee ports, having received its greatest development in the four years of the World War, when the flow of Central American coffees was largely diverted from Hamburg to the Californian port. In the course of these four years, the annual volume of coffee imports increased from some 380,000 bags to more than 1,000,000 bags in 1918. The bulk of these importations came from Central America, though some came from Hawaii, India, and Brazil and other South American countries. Because of its improved unloading and distributing facilities, San Francisco claims to be able to handle a cargo of coffee more rapidly than either New York or New Orleans.

Handling Central American coffees in San Francisco is distinctly different from the business in Brazil. In order to secure the Central American planter's crops, the importers find it necessary to finance his operations to a large extent. Consequently, the Central American trade is not a simple matter of buying and selling, but an intricate financial operation on the part of the San Francisco importers. Practically all the coffee coming in is either on consignment, or is already sold to established coffee-importing houses. Brokers do not deal direct with the exporters; and practically none of the roasters now import direct.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DISCHARGING COFFEE FROM A STEAMER JUST ARRIVED FROM CENTRAL AMERICA]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW A LARGE CARGO OF COFFEE IS HANDLED ON THE PIER AS IT IS UNLOADED FROM THE SHIP]

[Ill.u.s.tration: UNLOADING AND STORING COFFEE AT SAN FRANCISCO]

In recent years San Francisco has adopted the practise of buying a large part of her coffee on the "to arrive" basis; that is the purchase has been made before the coffee is shipped from the producing country, or while in transit. This practise applies, of course, only to well known marks and standard grades. Coffee that has not been sold before arrival in San Francisco is generally sampled on the docks during unloading, although this is sometimes postponed until the consignment is in the warehouse. It is then graded and priced, and is offered for sale by samples through brokers.

San Francisco is better equipped with modern unloading machinery and other apparatus than either New Orleans or New York, even more liberal use being made there than in New Orleans of the automatic-belt conveyors both for transferring the bags from the ships to the docks and for stacking them in high tiers on the pier. Another notable feature of the modern coffee docks is that the newer ones are of steel and concrete and, as in New Orleans, are covered to protect the coffee from wind and storm.

_Europe's Great Coffee Markets_

Europe has three great coffee-trading markets--Havre, Hamburg, and Antwerp. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are also important coffee centers, but rank far below the others named. In point of volume of stocks, Havre led the world before the war; while in respect to commercial transactions, it ranked second, with New York first. In pre-war days, the largest part of the world's visible supply of coffee was stored in the Havre bonded warehouses, being available for shipment to any part of Europe on short notice, or even to the United States in emergencies. Even during the World War, this French port remained a powerful factor in international coffee trading. Coffee trading in Havre, both exchange and "spot"

transactions, follows about the same general lines as in New York and the other great coffee markets. Coffee "futures" are dealt in on the Havre Bourse.

Green coffee is sold in London by auction in Mincing Lane. On arrival, it is stored in bonded warehouses, and is released for domestic use only when customs duty at the rate of four and one-half pence per pound has been paid. The bulk of the coffee comes in parchment on consignment; and before sale, it must be hulled and sorted in the milling establishments, most of which are on the banks of the Thames.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE MODERN DEVICES USED IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR HANDLING GREEN COFFEE]

The auctions are held four times a week, usually on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The sales are advertised in the market papers--chief among which is the _Public Ledger_--and also by the auctioneers, who issue catalogs of their offerings. A few hours before the beginning of the sale, samples are laid out for inspection by prospective buyers, who may cup-test them if they desire. The actual selling is done by compet.i.tive cash bidding, the highest bidder becoming the owner. Two cla.s.ses of brokers do the bidding, one for home trade and the other for exporters.

Home trade takes about a tenth of the coffee, the remainder being sold for export. If the coffee is bought for re-export, it can be transferred to the shipping port, still in bond, and shipped out of the country without paying duty. During the World War, auctions were held about twice a week; but after the signing of the armistice in November 1918, the London traders resumed the four times a week practise.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFEE AUCTION SAMPLES ON DISPLAY AT AMSTERDAM]