Results from High-End Auctions in Honduras and Panama, Including $4,100/lb Nano Lot

Promotional photo for the Lamastus Estates auction showing coffees from the Elida Estate.

Two high-profile green coffee auctions recently concluded in Central America, including one that featured a nano lot of Panama-grown Gesha-variety coffee that fetched an astounding $4,100 per pound.

That 5.5-pound lot came from the annual auction of the Lamastus Family Estates, a network of three coffee-producing estates in the Chiriquí Highlands of Western Panama with advanced post-harvest processes and long-running high-end market connections all over the world.

The $4,100-per-pound lot was purchased by a consortium of specialty coffee roasting companies from Taiwan, mainland China, Singapore and Australia. A second nano lot (6 pounds) in the Lamastus auction’s “special edition” category was purchased for $2,222 per pound by the Saudi Arabian company Sulalat Coffee Trading.

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In total, with those top two lots subtracted, 24 lots totaling 1,801 pounds of coffee in the Gesha-focused auction earned $305,815 for a mean average of $169.8 per pound of green coffee, according to published auction data.

On the same day of the Lamastus auction, the Alliance for Coffee Excellence held the Honduras Cup of Excellence auction, showcasing coffee producers from throughout the country.

Notably, NBA star Jimmy Butler’s budding coffee venture, Big Face Coffee (sometimes styled as BIGFACE), scooped up three of the top-four scoring lots, all of which topped 90+ points, based on scoring from COE judges. The purchases follow Big Face’s purchase of the top lot at the El Salvador Cup of Excellence auction earlier this month.

The top lot at that auction, a washed Gesha coffee from farmer and International Womens Coffee Alliance member farm Finca Santa Lucia in Comayagua, was purchased by two Taiwanese coffee companies for $58.50 per pound.

In total, 25 lots that scored 87+ points according to COE’s international jury generated $468,375.71 for a mean average of $27.99 per pound.