The 2010 Honduras Cup of Excellence Auction took place July 7.  We entered bids on 10 out of the 25 available lots and we are proud to report that we were the winning bidder on 4 Lots!  The coffees submitted to this competition go thru an intense selection process.  The final lots selected are all coffees scoring 84 points and above in cuppings conducted by both the Honduras National jury and the Cup of Excellence International Jury.  These coffees have all been evaluated a minimum of five different times during the competition process.  The Royal NY Crew and a few good friends also cupped these rare gems prior to the auction so we could select the lots we wanted to bid on. 

The coffees are vacuumed sealed in 66 lbs bags to preserve freshness.  This packaging also gives you a great opportunity to purchase these award winning coffees in smaller than usual export size bags. 

Lot#: 11 – El Sauce                Score: 86.75
Tree Type: Pacas                      Region: Santa Barbara
Cupping Notes: Great Acidity, tangy, creamy lasting aftertaste 

Lot#: 8 – Las Amazonas         Score: 88.20
Tree Type: Catuai         Region: La Paz
Cupping Notes: Orange, bright-peach, good balance with a clean finish
 

Lot#: 7 – Los Portillos            Score: 88.35
Tree Type: Pacas                      Region: Santa Barbara 
Cupping Notes: Raspberry, sweet, juicy cherry.  Very complex ends with a clean finish
 

Lot#: 4 – Fernández               Score: 89.70
Tree Type: Pacas                      Region: Santa Barbara
Cupping Notes: Lemon, orange, peach notes.   Great balance, clean 

The Cup of Excellence program helps premium coffee roasters discover coffees of exemplary quality – To read more about these Great Honduran Farms please contact me at Tabitha@royalny.com

The quantity available for each of these lots is shown on our offering sheet (and updated daily) – contact your salesperson or email: tradingdesk@royalny.com to reserve some today before they are sold out!

Lot #8 Las Amazonas

Lot #4 Fernandez

Lot #11 El Sauce

Lot #7 Los Portillos

Grounds for Health Online Coffee Auction, June 2 – 4, 2010

The Grounds for Health Online Coffee Auction rallies the coffee community to support women’s health services focusing on cervical cancer prevention programs in coffee-growing countries.  100% of the proceeds from this event go directly to support Grounds for Health programs at origin.

From producers to roasters, importers to retailers, this event brings the coffee industry together in a powerful way.

We are pleased to report with the help of your donated coffee, the auction raised $106,500, which is 10% more than last year!

How it works:

1. Producers and importers donate coffee
2. Available lots, descriptions, and scores are posted on http://www.auction.groundsforhealth.org
3. June 2-4: Roasters and importers will bid online at Stoneworks Coffee Auctions – http://auction.stoneworks.com   where they can win these outstanding lots of coffee
4. All auction proceeds go to Grounds for Health’s cervical cancer prevention programs

Royal Coffee New York has donated 10 different lots divided among our 3 warehouse locations.  Register today to participate in the auction bidding – together we can make a difference!

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and Ethiopia – my first trip to East Africa and the “birthplace of coffee.”  In Kenya, my travels took me to Nairobi and Mombasa for a visit with our Kenyan buying agent and to attend the East African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA) convention there.  The consensus of information from Kenya indicates that, due to dry weather, their crop will be reduced from its average size of 60,000 MT down to approximately 42,000 MT.  As one might expect, this all around tightness in supply, seen across the spectrum of grade qualities offered, has put upward pressure on prices.  We will continue to bid for Kenya coffees to secure an adequate supply of coffee for our inventory.  The producers at EAFCA were all focused on increasing their specialty coffee production and exportation since coffee is the main cash crop for nearly all of these coffee producing countries.  Attention to detail in processing and production, continued improvements in agronomy and research, and accurate quality control will all contribute to greater quantities of their coffee attaining “specialty” coffee distinction. 

Cupping Kenya auction lots

The increased focus on specialty coffee promotion is seen quite readily in Ethiopia, the second stop on my trip.  The main purpose of my stay in Addis Ababa was to meet with our current Ethiopian coffee suppliers, introduce ourselves to possible new suppliers, and to participate in the first specialty coffee auction of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) through their new Direct Specialty Trade (DST) division.  The ECX public/private partnership recognizes and promotes the benefits that can be gained by both sellers and buyers if DST is successful:  quality differentiation for farmers of high-scoring (SCAA grade 80 or higher) coffees, price discovery for coffees with these specialty attributes, traceability from the farmer/primary cooperatives to the buyer, and an increased share payment (85%) of the FOB export price guaranteed to the smallholder farmers. 

Cupping DST coffees before the auction

On the day before the DST auction, I went to the ECX grading facility in Addis Ababa for a cupping session of the coffee lots offered – 2 natural and 42 washed coffees.  After examining roasted samples and cup testing each coffee, I made a list of the coffees I had rated highly.  Then on February 18^th, the first bidding session of the DST took place.  On the trading floor of the ECX, a group of pre-registered, international buyers gathered with the Ethiopian sellers in the middle of the trading pit and the bidding began.  I was excited to participate in an open outcry bidding forum – the first time I have done so in my many years in the coffee industry.  And it was especially rewarding to do business face-to-face with the farmers and/or cooperatives who had produced and brought these great coffees to market.  Royal Coffee NY was the winning bidder on 3 lots of FTO Yirgacheffe coffee:  Lots S003 and S027 from the Konga Coffee Farmers Cooperative and Lot S015 from the Jirmi Wacho Farmers Cooperative.  We are also sharing auction lot S019 – an Ethiopian Natural Limu from Nigusie Lemma Edeto Coffee Development – with Royal Coffee Emeryville.  Out of the 44 lots of coffee available for this first auction, 16 lots were sold.

Ethiopian farmers /co-op representatives at the ECX

We will be shipping these auction lots to New York in March and expect them to arrive by the end of April.  Contact your sales rep for the cupping notes on these special lots of coffee so you do not miss out – place your orders as soon as possible. 

Ricky Sealing the purchase with Jirmi Wacho Farmers Co-op

Confirming the business with Konga Coffee Farmers Co-op

Keep an eye on our offering list for the auction lots we purchased:

FTO Ethiopian Yirgacheffe

• Lots S003 and S027 from the Konga Coffee Farmers Cooperative
• Lot S015 from the Jirmi Wacho Farmers Cooperative

Ethiopian Natural Limu

• Lot S019 from Nigusie Lemma Edeto Coffee Development

~ Richard Borg

For all roasters North of the Florida Keys, South of Raleigh, NC, East of the Mississippi and West of the Atlantic Ocean, Royal NY is now storing coffee closer than ever.  Just Opened!! – Our new warehouse location in Jacksonville, FL. 

We chose Jacksonville as a new distribution point because it is becoming a major port of call for the ocean carriers that transport our inbound coffee but, more importantly, because of the great variety of outbound trucking lanes and favorable freight rates due to its position at the crossroads of I-95 and I-10.                                                                                                                    

We are very excited about our new location and encourage all South-easterners to page thru our entire offering list and let us know those coffees you would like to see stored in Jacksonville. Please think of this warehouse as a facility where any of our offerings can be made available, our goal is to offer the same variety, quality, service and competitive pricing found in NY……but with better shipping rates and transit times.  We look forward to delivering you the same great coffee and saving you some money in the process. 

Please contact your Royal representative with any questions or requests you might have. 

Talk soon,
The Royal NY Crew

DJ Colombia 2009 Coffee Production Down 32% At 7.8M Bags 

BOGOTA (Dow Jones)–Colombian coffee production in calendar year 2009 endeddown 32% at 7.8 million 60-kilogram bags, Colombia’s National Federation of Coffee Growers, or Fedecafe, said Thursday.

The output compares with total Colombian production of 11.487 million bags in 2008 and is one of the lowest coffee crops in more than 30 years in the Andean country. 

Coffee exports last year were down 29% at 7.9 million bags, Fedecafe’s General Manager Luis Munoz said at a press conference. 

Fedecafe’s export figures include green, soluble, roasted and other coffee types. 

Colombia is the world’s largest producer of mild-washed arabica coffee, with annual output of between 11.5 million and 12.5 million bags in recent years.  It’s the third largest coffee producer overall after Brazil and Vietnam. 

-By Matthew Bristow, Dow Jones Newswires; matthew.Bristow@dowjones.com

(Maja Wallengren contributed to this article)  

Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.