Caféier's brand: 1 Kilo Coffee                                                 Caféier’s Drip Bag Coffee

Recently, vaccinations for COVID-19 have been carried out worldwide. Still, it has become difficult to achieve herd immunity with vaccines alone, re-spreading occurs, and various countries are re-implementing lockdown measures. Also, in Uzbekistan, the government has taken lockdown measures from the beginning of that year because of the COVID-19 spread. It has mandated working from home and increased demand for deliveries. However, when the buyer saw that people had to pay about half of the price of the food, unlike in Korea, they ordered for delivery, he asked for help from a matching manager of the "tradeKorea" to find coffee products that people could enjoy easily at home.

Korea's instant coffee, a favorite of locals in Uzbekistan for a long time, has been a steady favorite of locals, but in recent years, the culture of enjoying coffee brewed from beans has been rapidly spreading among young people. In phase with this trend, the buyer looked for freshly ground coffee, rather than instant coffee, that would taste similar to a coffee shop coffee even when brewing at home. The matching manager recommended Caf?ier, a coffee company that was selected as the best company based on sales and corporate growth prospects by evaluating the top 10 performance companies last year and is on track to move into the National Food Cluster.

The buyer living in Korea visited the Caféier factory for the first time on January 20, 2021, with the matching manager. The buyer saw the factory site of fresh beans and roasting while listening to the explanation of various coffee products, such as coffee beans, drip bags, and cold brew. Afterward, the buyer talked about the current coffee culture and trends in Uzbekistan and the direction of distribution and sales. In particular, the buyer pointed out that considering the economic power of average citizens in Uzbekistan, selling drip bag coffee in individual units to be enjoyed in various flavors without burden, rather than just selling them in bundles, was likely to get a favorable reception from consumers.

Caféier-EVIA 1st visit meeting                     Visit to the Caféier factory

After the meeting, the buyer sent samples of drip bag coffee and blended beans provided by Caféier to Uzbekistan and tested them on several locals, including baristas. After the local taste testing, the buyer delivered feedback on coffee beans and drip bag coffee from Uzbekistan locals to Caféier through the tradeKorea matching manager who is fluent in Russian. Based on feedback from the locals, the buyer visited the Caféier factory and had a second meeting to find the right taste of coffee beans for Uzbekistan locals. Caféier adjusted the coffee taste by blending beans newly to suit the local taste, which prefers the strong taste, then re-established a price geared to the Uzbekistan market, and shipped newly blended follow-up samples.

Buyer's feedback on first samples                                         Coffee bean test of 2nd samples

Thanks to Caféier's enthusiastic response, we found a suitable blend of coffee beans for Uzbekistan within a short period of time. And we decided to send drip bag coffee to Uzbekistan in bulk without packaging to reduce costs, and additional packaging work will be carried out locally. The buyer proposed a two-year exclusive contract considering the local marketing period because the drip bag coffee product is not a familiar one in Uzbekistan yet. Caféier decided to sign the contract by accepting the buyer's proposal, with a view to the potential development of the coffee market in Uzbekistan and future sales in CIS and Russia.

Review of the Caféier-EVIA exclusive contract                        Caféier-EVIA signed 2-year exclusive contract

Caféier and the Uzbekistan buyer have pledged to move forward into a mutually beneficial relationship by sharing the direction of the coffee beans business and on/ offline marketing references, and both Caféier and the buyer thanked matching managers of "tradeKorea" for being with them throughout the process.