After five hours and 1840 bids, the 17th El Salvador Cup of Excellence auction had an all-time-high average price per pound record of US$23.53.
This new high beat the earlier record of US$13.65 per pound, set in 2017.
The auction began with a lowered base price of US$5.50 per pound, given pandemic-related financial difficulties experienced globally.
However, for the first time, all lots were still sold above US$12 per pound, with a total auction income of US$475,607.15.
According to The Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE), these results were trend-setting indicators that could guide coffee farmers to make decisions about their present and future projects for production, commerce and processing.
The winning coffee was Finca Divina Providencia from producer Roberto Ulloa. This natural anaerobic process Pacamara scored 90.31, and it was divided in two.
The 1A lot received US$80.10 per pound, which was the second-highest price paid for El Salvador coffee in the competition’s history.
A group of six buyers purchased this portion of the lot: Maruyama Coffee and Uchida Coffee from Japan, Cometeer and Goodboybob Coffee from the United States and Harrods and Difference Coffee form the United Kingdom.
Al Qahwa Al Arabiah purchased lot 1B from the United Arab Emirates for US$60.10 per pound.
The third top price per pound got US$48.60 for an 89.16-scoring natural process Geisha from Finca La Pacaya. This lot was purchased by Latorre & Dutch Coffee Traders, based in Australia and China.
This year’s auction had a symbolic dedication to Gilberto Baraona, a Cup of Excellence winning producer and a faithful believer of speciality coffees in El Salvador.
Thank you to the International buyers. When they buy coffee from El Salvador, they not only buy our coffee, they buy the love, dedication and passion of many years of work by our producers.
Lily Pacas, The Executive Director of the El Salvador Coffee Council
The Cup of Excellence programme promotes winning coffees internationally, helping for direct forge trade while improving a country’s quality coffee growing capabilities.
