History

We have also built up our expertise throughout our history. Coffee has been a typical cargo aboard our ships for more than a century now. “The ‘Granada’ steamer belonging to the Hamburg-Amerika Linie arrived in Hamburg following its final voyage carrying 113,085 sacks of coffee with a value of more than ten million marks. This is the largest shipment of coffee that has ever been carried to Europe.” This was written in our employee magazine, the “Zeitschrift der Hamburg-Amerika Linie” back in 1901.

The total intake of coffee at this time amounted to 1.8 million double centers worth 172.2 million marks. Most coffee came from South and Central America and from the West Indies. Brazil alone exported coffee to Hamburg for around 92.1 million marks. "The second state, Guatemala, remains behind a quarter of this export value," writes the historical journal.

As early as around 1900, Hamburg was the world's largest import port for coffee from Brazil, along with New York. The Hamburg-American Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (Hapag) was one of the most important carriers for Brazilian coffee to Europe. Most of the country's exports were transported to Europe by Hapag and the Hamburg-South American steamship company, which was founded around the same time.

Today, Hapag-Lloyd serves almost every coffee-exporting country with around 130 liner services and is one of the world’s largest carriers of coffee. Coffee is our passion, and has been for a long time.

Your direct link to our coffee experts
In order to offer you first-class service, our coffee experts are at your disposal worldwide. We know that high-quality equipment and a fast, flexible handling play a central role, especially during harvesting times. In addition, we provide personal advice - with experienced coffee experts who live their passion for the product, answer your most burning questions and do everything to ensure the quality and safety of your cargo.

For more information please contact your local coffee expert.