Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia and the United States were the largest buyers in the first of two international online auctions of fine coffees known as "The Best of Panama".
In the first of two online auctions, held on June 24, the coffee house Junior Taiwan paid $107.86 per pound of coffee "... grown using a natural process in La Mula farm, owned by Willem Boot" .
On June 24 50 lots of geisha and natural coffee will be auctioned and in early August the remaining 48 lots, winners of the national contest will be auctioned.
For the international auction to be held on June 24 interested buyers "... must be registered on the www.stoneworks.com platform. Among the requirements are that they have a credit card with a limit greater than $10,000 ...
The future price fell to $169 from $215, the maximum price reached in April, after it was proven that the damage to crops caused by drought in Brazil was not as severe as anticipated.
Contrary to what was estimated a few months ago, the damage done to the coffee plantations in Brazil was not so serious as tol drastically affect the final production of the 2013-2014 harvest.
A gourmet coffee from a farm in the town of Dilpito and local contest winner received the highest price in the online international auction.
The 25 lots of coffee in the auction had an averaged selling price of $933 per cwt (hundredweight), the highest price recorded in the 11 editions of the event based in Nicaragua.
"The gourmet coffee farm La Dueña, owned by Jeni Lourdes Bustamante Moncada, in Loma Fria in the municipality of Dipilto ...
The 23 samples selected in the national competition will form part of an electronic auction on June 17, in which over 200 international buyers will take part.
The international companies participating in the auction on June 17 hail from the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and several European countries, who come to the country to see the sights, procedures and conditions under which the grain is grown.
Foreign investors continue to pour into the region in search of business opportunities in sectors traditionally handled by Central Americans.
Coffee producers of Dutch or Korean-American nationality were among the winners of the contest of fine coffees "The Best of Panama 2014", which involved 84 lots of fine, and traditional coffee.
"Heakyung Burneskis Kang, a Korean-American citizen, was one of the winners of the night, achieving first place in the categories of traditional natural coffees and traditional washed coffees".
On June 24, there will be an international auction via the internet of the top 20 grains from traditional and geisha categories.
The 20 coffee lots to be auctioned internationally will be selected from a total of 23 lots that will be evaluated by national and international judges from the United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Spain, South Korea and Colombia.
A Japanese company has paid a record price for coffee in El Salvador in the Cup of Excellence auction.
The variety coffee sold is Pacamara and the lot comes from the San Nicolás farm in Chalatenango.
During the five hour auction, 26 lots of coffee reached an average selling price of $1019.83 per quintal, up by almost $175.00 compared to the average obtained in 2012, which was $840.24 per quintal, noted the National Coffee Council . "
For the first time lots of very fine coffee from the Cup of Excellence event will be sold in the country at a national level and not in the international auction.
The Specialty Coffee Association of Costa Rica reported that the lots that do not pass on to the international stage, despite their high quality, will be sold here after coordination with national roasters and coffee producers, according to Nacion.com.
After a year's absence because of the impact of the rust blight, the coffee trading association is once again organizing the contest in order to boost exports.
The Specialty Coffee Association of Nicaragua (ACEN) is preparing for the 2014 Cup of Excellence event, considered of great importance in keeping the franchise of the Alliance for Coffee of Excellence. Because of the impact caused by rust, last year the event was not held.
In the past 30 years annual coffee consumption went from 1.2 kilos to 2.6 kilos per capita, and more than one billion cups of coffee are being consumed every year.
From an article by the Costa Rica Foreign Trade Promotion Office (PROCOMER):
Australia in recent years has experienced a radical change in the coffee culture. A popular newspaper in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald, says there is nothing more popular in the start of the 21st century than Australian coffee culture.
The final price of the aromatic grain from the farm Hacienda La Esmeralda reached a record high during the online auction entitled "The Best of Panama 2013".
Prensa.com reports that "the grain was purchased by the companies Saza Coffee, in Japan, and Haaya Gourmet Coffee, in Taiwan".
According to the president of the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama, Plinio Ruiz, this auction broke the record it terms of prices and showed that Panama has one of the best coffees in the world.
In the first electronic auction of the Cup of Excellence 2013 organized by the National Coffee Association, the farm El Injerto obtained the highest price of $45.10 per pound.
This is the second year that El Injerto won first place in the auction, last year it managed to get a price of $22.60 per pound.
The lot sold by the farm El Morito took second place with a price of $32.10, and third place went to Coffee from the farm El Socorro y Anexos with $26.50 per pound.
The Japanese company UCC Ueshima Coffee Co. paid $5010 per quintal to the San Nicolas farm during the last stage of the Cup of Excellence competition in El Salvador.
"The grain produced in the San Nicholas A farm was the first place winner this year and yesterday it managed to sell to UCC 1800 pounds at a price of $90.180. The average cost of a pound exceeded more than 40 times what it would be on the stock exchange ", reported Elmundo.com.sv.
The auction titled "The Best of Panama 2013" will take place online on July 3, and will have the participation of about 57 international buyers.
According to Pliny Ruiz Jr., President of the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), the auction will begin at 9 am via the website www.stoneworks.com.
The local farmers will gather at hotel Oasis, in Boquete, Chiriquí Province to follow up on the auction which takes place over the Internet.