Cup of Excellence® Continues its Farmer Support with Record Breaking Auctions
Houston, Texas (August 28, 2024), After a year hiatus, the Ethiopian Cup of Excellence auction set another Cup of Excellence high mark. Angelino’s, a Los Angeles specialty coffee roaster placed the final bid of $445.00lb for # 1a breaking the 2022 record of $400.50lb. The auction lasted almost 9 hours and resulted in an average price of well over $24lb for all 29 lots.
We’re absolutely ecstatic to break a record with Ethiopia”, indicated Kirk Bedrossian, of Angelino’s who also bought the #1 Thailand and other CoE winners.
“This milestone is a celebration of the extraordinary craftsmanship of the farmers and the incredible work of the Cup of Excellence team. To be part of this historic moment is beyond thrilling. We can’t wait to share these exceptional coffees and honor their amazing journey!”.
Also exciting, Thailand, one of the newest and certainly less well-known coffee producing countries held its own Cup of Excellence successful online auction a week earlier with international buyers fighting hard to own a winning lot.
The two countries are completely different. Ethiopia is considered the oldest Arabica coffee producing nation and Thailand began in the 1970s with Robusta production. Thailand is creating an abundance of fascination among specialty coffee buyers and Ethiopia has been a hot spot for decades. Size is also very different. Average lot size for Thailand was 178 lbs. while Ethiopia had a whopping 1,235 lbs.-the largest so far for any 2024 auction. Both are building quality education and transparent infrastructure through the Cup of Excellence.
Ethiopian winning farmer, Basha Bekele Butusha commented
“This achievement is a dream come true. The price our coffee fetched at the auction is beyond what we ever imagined. It’s not just a victory for us but for all Ethiopian coffee farmers. We are deeply honored that our hard work and dedication to our craft have been recognized on the global stage. This success inspires us to continue growing the best coffee we can, and we are excited about what the future holds for Ethiopian coffee.”
Remarks from Boonsak Yuwaratanaporn, a Thailand winner included
“Because we are a small coffee community from a village far away, we see an opportunity as marketing in participating Cup of Excellence for people to get to know us more. After we become COE winning farm, we have realized that buyers actually value our coffee and we have an opportunity to listen to their feedback to improve our quality of coffee for next year”.
The auction is just part of the Cup of Excellence program design. The award recognition and the auction price- while going to an individual farmer- often builds entire communities and regions. The goal of the 25-year-old program has always been to create the incentive and the transparency that allows high-quality farmers to prosper while at the same time building marketplace support.
