Each step of the supply chain must deliver a specific product to the next step in order to produce coffee for the customer. When it comes to the farm, ripe coffee cherries must be delivered to the mill. As the cherries are picked by the workers they are measured by volume and placed in a truck to be taken to the mill for processing.

Once the mill receives the ripe cherries, they must be stripped of their shells and dried to produce beans with the parchment shell on them. These beans  are packaged into 45 kg sacks, and loaded on large trucks to be sent to the roaster. Those truck would be sent to a shipping company, who process the coffee through the exportation process and send it to the roaster. 

The shipping company loads the sacks into large shipping containers. The shipping containers are sent through customs, where they are locked up to ensure they aren’t tampered with. More paperwork is filled out to ensure the shipment is sent to the right place, and it is legally allowed to be shipped. Once the containers are cleared for exportation, they are loaded onto a ship and sent to the roaster. 

The roaster receives the sacks of dried coffee from the mill, and they roast and package the coffee so it can be sold. The packages are loaded into a truck or train, and on rare occasions a plane, to be sent to the retail stores. Once the retail store receives the coffee packages, they are placed on the shop floor, where a customer picks it and purchases the package for their own consumption.