Coffee, the second largest export commodity next to crude oil, has now begun to grab the attention of the globe. As it is very influential commodity that contributed to the comprehensive evolution of many developing and emerging economies like Ethiopia, it is salient to give due attention to promoting and investing in the coffee sector.
Ethiopia, as the botanical home of coffee Arabica, with an almost fertilizer free environment, produces a number of distinctive regional speciality types of coffee such as, Limu, Lekmmti,, Harara, Yirgachefe, Sidama, Jimma, Tepi, Bebeka, Godere, Bench Maji, Bale, Anderacha, Zege, Amaro,Arsi,Kochere,GuraFerda, Shegitu,Welga,Geisha Gera, Yeki and many more.
Alliance for the Coffee Excellence and the Ethiopian Tea and Coffee Authority and with the support of USAID’s Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity brought Cup of Excellence – an annually organized event aiming at benefiting smallholders on auction market.
This year’s auction for the finest Ethiopian coffee was competitive. The 168 registered buyers from 33 countries bid 4,137 times for over five hours to secure the sought after winning coffees. The second top coffee had a total of 902 bids, a record number in the competition history.
The average prices for the 28 coffees were 28 USD per pound a new record at the Cup of Excellence auction. The auction also broke the COE record in total sales at 1,348,690 USD topping the previous record of 830,245 USD from El Salvador which had 42 lots for sale.
The top-scoring coffee in the year’s Cup of Excellence sold at a staggering price of 185.10 USD (ETB 6,293) per pound, or 407 USD (ETB 13,838) per kilogram to Maruyama Coffee Co. Ltd from Japan. This is the highest price ever recorded for Ethiopian coffee.
Coffee from Nigusie Gemeda of Sidama, SNNPR received the highest price. The US company coffee at Intelligentsia bought the second highest coffee that belongs to Rumudamo Coffee PLC from Sidama at 108 USD (ETB 3672) per pound. The third highest price went to Testi Trading PLC at 66.60 USD (ETB 2264) per pound sold to black Gold Coffee CO.Ltd from Taiwan.
Seble Tewolde Birhan Public Relations Head at USAID’s Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity told The Ethiopian Herald that the Cup of Excellence has been well accomplished though the world has been struck by a global pandemic COVID-19. Some part of Specialty Coffee Competition aimed at benefiting smallholders has got its end in the United States due to the risk of COVID-19 though it was scheduled to be fully held in Addis Ababa.
As to her the completion will continue to be held to benefit smallholders promote Ethiopian distinctive speciality coffees and thereby to secure enormous advantage from the coffee sector.
The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority and Alliance for Coffee Excellence with USAID’s Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity support brought the renowned coffee competition Cup of Excellence for the first time to Ethiopia in 2020. The years Coffee Olympic was not held in the normal schedule due to the global incident COVID-19. So it gets its end in the following way.
The Competition in Ethiopia was kicked off in September 2019 with awarenessraising workshop and invitation of coffee farmers to submit their samples. The first round of the completion was held in Addis Ababa in a new state-of –the-art of the coffee lab. A jury of 17 Ethiopian cuppers and a head judge from the US choose the top 150 coffee that would move onto the second stage of the completion. However, due to COVID-19 and subsequent travel and logistic restriction, the organizers sent the sample to the Alliance for Coffee Excellence Head Quarter in Portland, Oregon. The international jury there selected 40 finalist coffee.
The 40 samples were then sent to three countries ( the UK, US and Brazil ) to six renowned international cuppers. These panel of experts selected 28 coffee samples that scored 87 and above as the winners of Cup of Excellence of Ethiopia. Out of the 28 the coffee scored above 90 to be named Presidential Winner. The 11 coffee scoring between 85 were awarded National Winner Title by the jury.
As prestigious competition is a must to pass through a variety of tempting stages to win excellence. The year’s competition ushered stages from preselecting to national winner auction. Preselecting stage: February 17th – 28th with the 16 National Judges and the head judge in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with Paul Songer as the head judge and John Thompson as a supporting head judge.
National stage: April 6th – 10th with the judges Paul Songer, Ricky Dyson and Darrin Daniel in Portland, Oregon, USA with Paul Songer as the head judge.
International stage: Completed on different dates with the judges Paul Songer, Silvio Leite, Erwin Mierisch, Eduardo Ambrocio, Edwin Ambrocio, John Thompson, Darrin Daniel, Erin Wang and Alex Pond in their respective labs around the globe.
Cup of Excellence auction: The winning lots are the top 30 coffees that scored above an 87 by the Cup of Excellence International Jury. These coffees have each been cupped a minimum of five different times during the cupping process. The coffee is packaged in 30kg boxes containing two 15kg vacuumpacked bags.
National Winners auction: The National Winner lots are coffees scoring 85+ points during the International Week by the Cup of Excellence International Jury. These coffees have each been cupped a minimum of five different times during the cupping process. The coffee is packaged in 69kg hermetic bags.
The selected exporter for the cup has already finished the cleaning and vacuum packing of all the lots, about 19,982.58 kilogram of coffee, and the coffee is now ready for export to the highest bidders in 33 countries.
The Ethiopian herald July 23,2020
BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
