Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the EU

What Buyers Want

Expanding Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee in the EU Windward Commodities 30th June 2022

Panama Gesha: Taking Coffee to New Heights

At an even more rarefied level, The Best of Panama Auction is one of the most prestigious events in the specialty coffee industry. Organized entirely by coffee producers, born out of a coffee crisis, it has transformed how the world views Panamanian coffee. Unlike Jamaica and Hawaii, Panama was entirely exposed to the global C-price and was a price taker. When the International Coffee Agreement fell apart in 1989 and prices plummeted, the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP) created a link to the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) in order to connect production and consumption. They hired a specialist marketing firm to promote awareness of the origin and started an annual coffee competition, The Best of Panama, in 1996 in order to highlight the quality of their coffee. This was not simply to sell tiny amounts of ultra premium specialty coffee but to create

an overall quality perception of Panama that would raise the entire industry. In the 2002 second Best of Panama auction a batch from the Elida Estate sold for USD5.21/ kg (Five times theworld price at the time) and in 2003, a batch from Hacienda Esmerelda Gesha reached a, then astonishing, US$46.2/ kg. It became rapidly clear that this was an effective way to engage with the global coffee buying community. The latest auction of priced a batch of Finca Sofia Gesha at above US$2,861/kg, generating astonishing media PR. All of this, in common with Hawaii, is based on continuous performance improvement and innovation, similar to the attitude found in winemakers from regions of the New World like Oregon, New Zealand, and Chile. The coffee that is being produced in Panama today, with the strong presence of Gesha, a natural process, and inoculations with commercial strains, has nothing to do with what Panama coffee used to be 15 years

ago. However, this attitude of continuous improvement keeps buyers attentive and enthusiastic. The results have been clear and have had a halo effect across the entire industry. The export value of Panama specialty coffee rose to USD25.9m in 2021, a 5.14% annualised increase over a decade with average specialty (80+ score) prices for Panama green beans at USD16.23/ kg compared to USD7.01/kg for Ethiopia and USD3.53/kg for Brazil.

Country

Total Volume (mt)

Median Price (USD/Kg)

Median Quality

Median Lot Sise (kg)

Brazil PNG India Mexico

105,579 7,915 2,744 15,427 19,641 99,465 35,657 32,822 4,250 1,383 1,143 458

$ 3.15 $ 4.19 $ 4.50 $ 5.51 $ 5.80 $ 6.53 $ 7.01 $ 7.16 $ 9.17 $ 9.70 $ 10.47 $ 16.53

83 84 84 84 84 86 86 84 87 86 87 85

16,314 18,001 9,000 2,415 12,723 1,400 4,920 1,725

Indonesia Colombia Ethiopia Costa Rica

Kenya Bolivia

840 600 350 276

Ecuador Panama

36 | Time to Wake Up and ‘Cup’ the Coffee

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