I’m really excited to share this press announcement from the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association regarding results from the recent Cup of Excellence® Early Harvest competition and live auction.
In short: it was a big success. The event showed gains over the prior year by practically any measure and there was a big uptick in the price of winning coffees, even despite the extremely low commodity ‘C’ contract price of coffee right now. The results speak for themselves, so check out this press release:
The #1 lot at Brazil’s Cup of Excellence® (COE) Early Harvest live auction held online on November 27th sold at $23.10 per pound, or approximately double the price of the top coffee from the same competition in 2012. In total, the event raised over $516,000 for Brazil’s COE winning farmers, an increase of more than 30% from the prior year. Gains were seen across the board with the average price of a winning coffee selling for $6.53 per pound, or 17% more than in 2012.
(See complete auction results here)
“Last week’s strong auction results amidst an historically weak commodity coffee market underscores Brazilian farmers’ achievements in the advancement of coffee quality,” commented Ms. Vanusia Nogueira, Executive Director of the Brazil Specialty Coffee Association. “We were further delighted to see so many countries represented by buyers, which signals that Brazilian specialty coffees are becoming better known and more popular worldwide despite increased global competition from other origins.” Participation was seen from buyers in Asia, Australasia, Brazil, Europe and the United States, which recorded a substantial increase in activity.
The Early Harvest competition and auction is one of two COE events held in Brazil each year. The Late Harvest competition, featuring the country’s exceptional sundried natural coffees, is presently underway and will conclude with an online auction scheduled for March 4, 2014. Both events are made possible with the support of ApexBrasil, the Brazilian trade and investment promotion agency.
I’ll be participating in the Late Harvest competition in January and will look forward to sharing the news about all of the coffees coming out of that next event.