Winning producers, jurors and representatives of COE and ACEDE gathered last week in Guayaquil. Cup of Excellence courtesy photo.
The first ever Ecuador Cup of Excellence (COE) coffee auction broke the previous COE per-pound price record established earlier this year in Ethiopia.
In total, buyers from all over the world shelled out just over $250,000 USD for the 23 winning microlot coffees, with an average price of $33.55 per pound. By comparison, the current “C price” for arabica coffee — a benchmark price for the commodities market — is approximately $2.49 per pound.
Ecuadorian national judges met with winning farmers and members of the Asociacion de Cafes Especiales del Ecuador (ACEDE) last week at Universidad Ecotec in Guayaquil to watch the historic auction.
The top-scoring lot — a washed process, Typica Mejorado variety coffee grown by Abel Salinas Pacheco in the Loja region — fetched $97.10 from Taiwan’s Haru International Corporation.
Another Taiwanese coffee company, Orsir Coffee, purchased the #2 lot — a natural-process, Sydra variety coffee grown by Pablo Andrés Eguiguren Calisto at El Aguacate farm, also in Loja — for $49.20 per pound.
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“The first-ever Ecuador COE is worth celebrating. We’ll host 4 to 5 public cuppings within Taiwan in our cafe and some interesting places like coffee events,” Orsir Coffee’s Joe Hsu said in an announcement from the COE organizers. “Ecuadorian coffee has recently gained interest with customers here in Taiwan which has caused us to want to find extraordinary lots to bring into Taiwan, we will definitely promote it.”
The third-place coffee — another washed-process Typica Mejorado, grown by Curt John Madison at Alaska Del Sur — was purchased jointly by United States coffee companies Cometeer and George Howell Coffee for $75.10 per pound. A split of that lot was also bought by the department store brand Harrods for $76.50 per pound.
The top six coffees in the competition all hailed from the Loja region, while winners also came from the regions of Pichincha, Chimborazo, Imbabura and Zamora.
A second Ecuador Cup of Excellence competition is being planned for 2022.
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