Guatemala
USAID Auction Helps Guatemalan Quality Coffee Growers
The old adage argues that “quality sells,” but
for Central American coffee farmers, whose economic livelihoods
depends on the emerging market for quality coffees, the big
question is – at what price? A USAID program is beginning
to provide the answer, and for farmers in Guatemala, the news
is very good.
A Guatemala Q-Auction recently organized by the USAID-financed
Central America Coffee Quality Program through the Coffee
Quality Institute produced a new record price of $1.55 per
pound and an average price of $1.27 for the seven lots auctioned.
As bids recently came in from around the world, a laptop computer
projected the climbing prices onto a large projection screen
in the Guatemala Coffee Producers Association (ANACAFE) conference
room, and the farmers gathered there buzzed with excitement,
and then openly celebrated.
The prices positions Guatemala as one of the highest weighted
average for coffee in Central America.
“Guatemala is delighted with the results because more
quality coffee is being sold in bigger lot sizes to satisfy
impressive commercially oriented buyers,” said Jose
Angel Lopez, president of ANACAFE which conducted the auction.
“Thanks to Guatemala’s variety of microclimates,
our country maintains the position of preferred supplier of
specialty coffee.”
Lopez’s comments reflected the conclusion of most
of the farmers in the room that something very new and promising
had occurred. For the first time, quality Guatemalan coffee
was being sold at an Internet auction on a commercial scale.
For the first time, quality coffee prices were being determined
in public view across the Internet, and the prices being offered
were significantly higher than the New York “C”
market -- about $0.70/lb. on the day of the auction. The winning
lot had earned an $.80/lb. premium over the NYBOT, and the
average lot had earned a $.57/lb. premium.
Gerry La Rue, director of operations for the Coffee Quality
Institute and USAID’s partner in the project, was pleased
with the results of the auction but reminded the farmers of
the work to be done.
“Now it is most important that each exporter follow
up to fulfill the needs of the buyer,” he said. “This
will make the difference in building and maintaining relationships
among buyers and sellers.”
Predicting the buyers would be pleased with the quality
of coffee they bought on the Internet in 2004, La Rue was
optimistic that next year’s projected auction would
attract as many as 200 containers traded, not only in Guatemala,
but across the Central American region and in Colombia, Mexico,
and East Africa.
Richard Whelden, the former head of USAID’s Central
America Programs, said that the U.S. government is providing
assistance for market-based programs so that small and medium
coffee producers can improve coffee quality, form new businesses
linkages, secure longer-term contracts with the specialty
coffee industry and identify and implement diversification
options for producers.
The coffee which garnered the record price was produced
by a farm from Huehuetenango and bought by Caribou Coffee
from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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