The 16th Cup of Excellence (COE) auction ended, and the average price per pound scored over US$12.
At US$12.08 per pound, the average broke Nicagarua’s previous record of $10.89 per pound set in 2017. This happened on a day when the commodity price for coffee dropped below US$1 per pound and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The opening prices for the auction were dropped to encourage buyers to bid to ensure that the coffee farmer would get paid.
The first-place winning coffee received the third-highest Nicaragua COE competition price ever paid. Sugi Coffee and Maruyama Coffee Roasting in Japan, Harrods in the United Kingdom, and Cometeer and Goodboybob Coffee in the United States, paid US$36.90 per pound for 1a, half of the lot.
The other half, 1b, was purchased by Takamura Coffee Roasters in Japan for US$30.30 per pound.
According to the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, several bidding battles broke out. The third-ranking coffee, a washed Maracaturra produced by Luis Emilio Valladarez, had 117 bids. Terarosa won the bidding war, paying US$20.20 per pound for the coffee.
There was also a lot of bidding on Tania Ferrufino’s anaerobic hybrid coffee, ranked seventh, which was eventually purchased by Kaffebrenneriet, who paid a total $16,352.28 for the lot.
Nicaragua COE winning producers and bidders joined a zoom meeting during the auction. One of the bidders was Wouter Brunia, owner of The Coffee Nose in the Netherlands, who won his first-ever Cup of Excellence lot.
The competition also saw at least six first-time participants who won the COE award and 11 out of 12 National Winner producers. The National Winner auction is open until 31 July.
