High Prices Come Through at Best of Yemen and National Yemen Coffee Auctions

Press photo courtesy of the Mokha Institute, organizer of the National Yemen Coffee Auction.

Two separately produced online auctions of traceable small lots of high-quality Yemeni coffee recently concluded, demonstrating market potential for the agricultural sector in a country enwrapped in civil war.

Best of Yemen

Last week, the Best of Yemen coffee auction organized by private coffee trading company Qima Coffee and the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) saw 29 auction lots purchased for an average per-pound price of $62.14.

According to the organizers, winning bidders represented coffee companies from more than 50 companies from 17 different countries.

The auction is part of ACE’s ongoing Private Collection Auction (PCA) series, which involves partnerships with private organizations while following many of the quality-assurance processes used in the popular Cup of Excellence competition and auction platform.

The price for the top-scoring coffee broke the auction’s previous record, with Thailand-based Aroma Group Ltd. offering $246.50 per pound for a 105.2-pound lot of coffee produced by first-time auction participant Hifthallah Alhaymi.

This was the fourth Best of Yemen auction conducted by Qima and Ace.

National Yemen Coffee Auction

The inaugural National Yemen Coffee Auction concluded earlier today, with buyers throughout Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, Europe and the United States placing winning bids for 28 traceable lots.

While all of the auction lots sold for at least $25 per pound, a 77-pound top-scoring lot from producer Ali Ahmad al Khawlani was bought by Tennessee-based roasting company Goodman Coffee Roasters for $60.50 per pound.

The highest bid in the auction came from the Australian wing of importing company List + Beisler on behalf of Australia’s D’Angelo Coffee. The companies offered $78 per pound for a 47-pound lot of coffee produced by Abdulwahab Senan Alqashim.

The National Yemen Coffee Auction is the flagship program of the Mokha Institute, a United States-based nonprofit formed in 2020 and led by Port of Mokha Founder Mokhtar Alkhanshali and Willem Boot of Boot Coffee and other coffee-focused ventures. It is supported by the Yemeni Coffee Farmer cooperatives, an umbrella organization called Yemen’s Unity of Coffee Organization and the Yemeni Coffee Exporters Association.

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