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Ethiopian coffee fetches record prices on the internet
A cooperatively-grown Ethiopian coffee has sold for US$10.65/lb at a recent internet coffee auction. The price achieved has set a record in the history of Ethiopian coffee exports.
Ranked No.1 among 27 other washed and unwashed lots of cooperatively-grown Ethiopian coffees at the second annual ECAFE GOLD 2006 Internet Coffee Auction, the sun-dried natural (and organicly certified) lot from the Yirgacheffe Coffee Union's Hama Cooperative, was purchased by Japanese quality coffee buyer Ken Motoi with the stated price, which turned out to be an ECAFE record as well.
The record price reported is nearly ten times higher than the conventional price at the New York Coffee Market, which stood at US$1.03/lb. In order to promote Ethiopian quality coffees to international buyers and help Ethiopian farmers secure better prices for their produce, ECAFE decided to make the auction an annual event. In last year's auction, the highest bid registered was US$6.5/lb for a coffee bean grown by a cooperative operating under the Sidama Coffee Farmers Union.
"Although the volume of coffee beans put up for auction through ECAFE Internet Coffee Auction is small, the event will play a major role in introducing and promoting Ethiopian quality coffees," the Union's export division head, Ashenafi Araw, told the press.
According to ECAFE, the number of bidders who participated in this year's auction, which was nearly 200, has more than doubled compared to that of last year's. And after six intense hours of bidding, the Japanese buyers has come out winners, walking away with 342 60Kg bags of coffee out of the total 695 bags put up for auction.
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