Several Cup of Excellence (COE) records were broken in the 12 CEO competitions held in 11 producing countries in 2018.

The Costa Rican COE saw the winning lot from producer Luis Ricardo Calderon Madrigal receive the highest price ever paid for a COE coffee at US$300.09 (about $420) per pound. This was more than double the previous COE record for any country.

Guatemala National Winner (NW) lot 40 sold for US$9.10 per pound, setting a NW auction high bid record.

Brazil Pulped Naturals lot 1a set a high bid record for Brazil of US$143.00 per pound. 

Burundi broke its COE country record by achieving seven presidential awards from the International Jury.

Across the 12 competitions the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) held with its in-country partners, more than 3000 samples were submitted and evaluated, and 473 lots were auctioned in the COE and NW auctions. These auctions raised US$4.5 million in proceeds for the coffee producing countries.

Rwanda auctioned the most pounds of coffee in a COE auction for 2018, with 54,300 pounds sold.

For the first time in its 15 years of operation, the Colombian COE saw a farm from the Quindío region win the competition.

Perú, in its second year with the COE program, saw 6600 more pounds of coffee go to auction than in 2017.

ACE says a notable element of COE Nicaragua was the strong performance of F1 hybrid varieties, which represented four of the top 11 coffees in competition.

The El Salvador COE auction boasted 13 honey, 13 natural and 12 washed processed coffees, and the Honduras COE auction had its first honey processed coffee go to auction in 15 editions of the program.

The top two coffees from México put a spotlight on Jalisco and Estado de México, regions not well known for specialty coffee.

For more information, visit www.allianceforcoffeeexcellence.org