To start a coffee business in Bolivia—café, roastery, or exporter—lock down the legal, sanitary, sourcing, and logistics pieces in this order. Choose your model and site based on utilities (stable 220V, natural gas, chimney clearance), foot traffic or loading access, and proximity to La Paz–Caranavi routes for green-coffee inflow. Form an Empresa Unipersonal or SRL, register at Fundempresa, obtain your NIT at SIN, enable facturación electrónica under the correct actividad económica, and secure your municipal Licencia de Funcionamiento and Patente. For roasting/packaging, get SENASAG Registro Sanitario, documented GMP/SOPs, pest control, potable water analysis, and compliant Spanish labeling (NIT, lote, fecha de vencimiento, contenido neto, origen). Hire correctly: enroll staff with Caja Nacional de Salud and AFPs; set payroll and occupational safety files. Tax planning: operate under Régimen General to recover IVA (13%); budget for IT (3% on gross) and IUE (25% on profit); keep supplier invoices to maintain IVA credit. Source directly from Yungas/Caranavi cooperatives with contracts that define moisture 10–12%, screen size, max defects, cup score ≥84, delivery terms, and pre-finance windows. Build a cupping lab, profile on a 5–15 kg roaster, and cost SKUs with 14–18% roast loss. For export, obtain RUEX (SENAVEX), Certificate of Origin, and SENASAG phytosanitary (green coffee); quote Incoterms FOB Arica with insurance and transit from La Paz.
