$80 winning coffee price smashes Cup of Excellence records

9th July 2008

The top-scoring Cup of Excellence coffee from the El Injerto I farm in mid-June brought in the highest price at auction ever received for any coffee in the programme, at a staggering $80.10 per pound.

A combined Japanese-American group produced the winning bid on the coffee—16 bags of the Pacamara variety from the Huehuetenango region—from the farm, based near La Libertad and owned by Arturo Aguirre Escobar. The successful bidders were Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Sweet Maria’s of the US, and Maruyama Coffee acting for the Mikatajuku Group from Japan.

Both the second and third place coffees were taken by US-based Coffee Bean International for its client Target. The third place coffee, 16 bags of caturra from Finca San Guayaba at Palencia near Guatemala City (managed by Juan de la Cerda Colom and his son Juan Diego) actually achieved the second best price, at $21.05 per pound.

Coming second in the Cup of Excellence competition, and achieving the third best price ($17.05 per pound) was the lot of 19 bags of bourbon from the La Benedición farm near Yepocapa, Chimaltenango.

The organisers noted the strong bids received from a number of European buyers, including those from the UK, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.

The previous record for a Cup of Excellence coffee was $49.75 a pound achieved by a Brazilian coffee in the 2005 auction.