Royal Coffee

What Royal Coffee does

Royal Coffee Inc., founded in 1978 and headquartered in Emeryville, California, is an independent, family-owned importer and wholesale distributor of specialty green coffee. The company sources green coffee beans from more than 30 origin countries across North/Central America, South America, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East, and serves the international coffee roasting community through both B2B website ordering and a dedicated sales/trading team. Its product portfolio is tiered across full-size bags ($3.50-$6.48 per pound), Royal Gems (50 lb boxes at $315-$375), and Crown Jewels (22 lb premium boxes at $710-$738+), with additional direct-sourcing inventory available through the Farmgate program.

The company's physical infrastructure includes warehouse/distribution nodes in Oakland, Seattle, Houston, Vancouver, and Shanghai, plus an operations support office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, enabling daily container unloading and regional logistics. Royal Coffee combines commodity green coffee distribution with a content-and-education ecosystem: The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room in Oakland offers consulting, classes, sensory training, and tasting experiences; the company publishes the Sourced: The Coffee Podcast and a long-running green coffee education blog; and team credentials include Q Arabica graders and CQI quality evaluation instructors. Customers range from single-location cafés to multi-roastery commercial operations, and the company supports both spot purchases and forward contracts through its internal sales force.

Royal Coffee generates revenue through per-unit green coffee sales to roasting houses, supplemented by ancillary revenue from consulting, classes, and events at The Crown facility. The business model is sales-led B2B, combining direct website e-commerce with account-management support for larger buyers, and the company's GTM emphasizes traceable sourcing, documented six-part quality analysis on premium lots, and educational content as differentiators. Royal Coffee is privately held, family-owned, and operates without disclosed institutional investment, M&A activity, or external funding rounds.

Name

Royal Coffee

Legal name

Royal Coffee Inc.

Website

https://royalcoffee.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1978

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Royal Coffee is an independent, family-owned green coffee importer founded in 1978 that sources specialty coffee from 30+ countries and serves the international roasting community through multi-warehouse distribution, premium traceable microlot programs, and The Crown coffee education lab.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Specialty Green Coffee Wholesale

NAICS

Coffee and Tea Manufacturing (311920)

SIC

Wholesale-Groceries, General Line (5141)

akta.pro primary industry

Green Coffee Processing (Hulling, Grading, Decaffeination) (AFAFADAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Specialty Coffee & Tea (Single-Origin, Micro-lot, Premium) Processing (AFAFADAJ)

Keywords

• Specialty green coffee
• Coffee bean importing
• Wholesale green coffee
• Coffee sourcing
• Coffee roasting supply

Headquarters

HQ city

Emeryville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Green Coffee Bean Sales: Core revenue stream from importing and selling specialty green coffee beans to roasting houses worldwide. Products sold include full bags, Crown Jewels (22lb premium boxes), and Royal Gems (50lb boxes). Sales occur through spot purchases and forward contracts with pricing per pound or per box.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Royal Coffee imports and wholesales specialty green coffee beans sourced from over 30 origin countries to professional coffee roasting houses worldwide. Its product portfolio includes Crown Jewels (22 lb premium microlots with six-part analysis), Royal Gems (50 lb boxes), Farmgate (direct farmgate-price sourcing), and full-size bag offerings, complemented by coffee consulting, roasting instruction, and education through The Crown Lab & Tasting Room.

Product overview

Royal Coffee is a green coffee importer and wholesale supplier serving the global coffee roasting community since 1978. The company offers a portfolio of specialty green coffee products including Crown Jewels (22 lb premium boxes), Royal Gems (50 lb boxes), and Full-Size Bags sourced from over 30 countries. Their offering is complemented by The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room in Oakland, California, which provides coffee education services including consulting, classes, tasting experiences, and sensory training. The company also produces the Sourced podcast and offers direct sourcing through their Farmgate program. Together, these products and services form a one-stop solution for coffee roasting houses—from green coffee procurement to professional development and education.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Crown Jewels: Specialty green coffee line featuring 22 lb boxes with six-part analysis and high traceability, season after season consistency
• Royal Gems

Products and services

• Crown Jewels
• Royal Gems
• Farmgate
• Full-Size Bags Green Coffee
• The Crown: Royal Coffee Lab & Tasting Room
• Coffee Consulting Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 47+ years in specialty green coffee importing
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Grounds for HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 25 November 2025Royal Coffee maintains an ongoing partnership with Grounds for Health, an organization dedicated to providing life-saving cervical cancer screening and treatment to women in coffee-growing communities. Royal is actively raising funds in support of this work and has conducted Ethiopia trips to support the initiative.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Royal New York: Sister company of Royal Coffee, also a specialty green coffee importer founded in 1995. Directly comparable business model serving similar roaster customers on the U.S. East Coast.
• Sucafina: Swiss-based green coffee merchant with strong specialty coffee operations (including 32cup, Caffè del Doge, and Belco). Most directly comparable to Royal Coffee as a specialty-focused green coffee importer supplying roasters worldwide.
• InterAmerican Coffee: Specialty green coffee importer serving North American and European roasters. Highly comparable to Royal Coffee in business model, customer base (specialty roasters), and product offering (traceable single-origin microlots).
• Atlas Coffee Importers: Specialty green coffee importer focused on traceable, high-quality single-origin coffees from multiple origins. Closely comparable to Royal Coffee's Crown Jewels and Royal Gems programs in target customer and product positioning.

Broad incumbents

• ECOM Trading: Global coffee and cocoa merchant with significant presence in green coffee sourcing and trading. Comparable business model to Royal Coffee as a green coffee supplier to roasters, but operates at industrial scale across both conventional and specialty segments.
• Louis Dreyfus Company Coffee: Major global commodities merchant with a significant green coffee division. Comparable as a large-scale green coffee supplier to roasters, though Louis Dreyfus operates across many commodities and does not specialize in specialty microlots like Royal Coffee.
• Olam Coffee (ofi): Major global green coffee merchant operating within Olam Food Ingredients (ofi). Comparable as a green coffee supplier serving roasters worldwide, though Olam's portfolio is far broader and less specialty-focused than Royal Coffee's.
• Volcafe (ED&F Man): One of the world's largest green coffee merchants, part of ED&F Man. Directly comparable to Royal Coffee as a B2B green coffee importer/trader serving roasters globally, though Volcafe operates at far greater scale and across both specialty and commercial grades.
• Coffee Holding Company: U.S.-based integrated coffee company that roasts, packages, and distributes coffee, with green coffee trading operations. Comparable to Royal Coffee in the green coffee trading segment but with added downstream roasting and packaging exposure.

Emerging players

• Sustainable Harvest Coffee Importers: Specialty green coffee importer emphasizing direct trade and transparent supply chains from Latin America and Africa. Comparable to Royal Coffee's Farmgate program in producer-relationship focus and target customer base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RoyalCoffee
• Facebookfacebook.com/RoyalCoffeeInc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/royal-coffee-inc
• Instagraminstagram.com/royal.coffee.inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Royal Coffee