Auction of the best coffee in Nicaragua achieved a record price of US$ 80.1 a pound

Nicaragua managed to sell its highest quality coffee at a record price of up to US$ 80.1 per pound (454 grams) in the Cup of Excellence electronic auction, the Alliance for Coffees of Excellence reported this Friday.

At US$80.1 per pound, it surpassed the highest price ever obtained by a coffee Nicaraguan special at an international auction, which was US$ 47.06 per pound, in 2007, the representative in Nicaragua of the Alliance for Excellence Coffees, Gabriela Saucedo, told reporters.

Inversiones Balladares Acevedo SA, owner of the “Los Alpes” coffee farm, located in the municipality of Dipilto near the border with Honduras, reached that price with a variety of geisha coffeeharvested under a natural process at 1,240 meters high, according to the information.

The Japanese company Snow Beans Coffer was the one that paid the US$ 80.1 per pound for this quality Nicaraguan coffee.

“Inversiones Valladarez Acevedo SA, in this case, is the name of our company and the two farms that participated in the contest were Buenos Aires and Los Alpes. Buenos Aires participated with a Maracaturra variety, obtaining second place in the Cup of Excellence, and Finca Los Alpes participated with a Geisha variety in a natural process, obtaining first place.”highlighted Olman Balladares, one of its executives.

Both farms are located in Dipilto, Nueva Segovia, one of the main coffee producing regions of Nicaragua.

What left the bid

In total, the Nicaraguan producers auctioned on the Internet 18 lots of coffee at an average price per pound of US$16.8, the highest being US$80.1 from the Los Alpes farm, according to the Alliance for Coffees of Excellence.

In total, Nicaraguan producers sold US$196,863.34 in the Cup of Excellence electronic auction, in which they received 2,311 bids.

Saucedo highlighted that the international auction was a success and broke all the records registered in Nicaraguaincluding the best price and participation of buyers from various countries.

A total of 90 companies from 17 countries participated, including Japan, China and South Korea, which were, in that order, the ones that bought the most high-quality Nicaraguan coffee.

Buyers from Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the United States, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Thailand also participated.

The auction, organized by the Alliance for Coffee Excellence, lasted around five and a half hours.

The Cup of Excellence is the most recognized coffee quality competition in the world due to the degree of demand it has for the selection of coffees that qualify for the international auction.

The weight of coffee in the economy

He coffee It is the second export product of Nicaragua, only surpassed by raw gold, which left sales of US$ 927.4 million in 2022, according to figures from the Central Bank.

Nicaraguan coffee exports amounted to US$714.1 million in 2022, 40.6% more compared to US$507.9 million a year earlier, according to official data.

In 2022, the average price of a quintal of Nicaraguan coffee in the international market was US$206.2 per quintal, higher than US$150.4 in 2021.

The coffee sector of Nicaraguaa country of 6.7 million inhabitants, generates 600,000 direct and indirect jobs during its harvest, according to the sector.

Nicaraguan coffee’s main markets are the United States, Italy, Belgium, Panama, Canada, Germany, Costa Rica, Spain, Australia, Sweden, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, according to the state-run Center for Procedures of the Exports (Cetrex).