October 2008

• Cup of Excellence 2008

  Mon 06 October, 2008
  Bolivia Cup of Excellence winning family

  This was now my fifth time on a Cup of Excellence international jury, as I’d previously been involved in competitions in Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia and El Salvador.

  9 coffee producing origins now participate in the program, which first started in Brasil in 1999. The first competition held outside Latin America was held in Rwanda in August 2008.

  There were nearly 300 farmer entries for Bolivia in 2008, all of which were pre-screened before the very best 100 passed to a national jury of professional coffee tasters from Bolivia.

  The 60 highest scoring coffees from the national jury moved into the next rounds of tasting.

  These 60 coffees were blind tasted up to 3 times more by the international jury over a week from 6th – 10th October 2008. The panel included coffee professionals from Europe, North America, Japan, Africa and Latin America.

  Overall, the quality of the 60 coffees was outstanding. The Bolivian characteristics seem to be full bodied, sweet coffees with an orangey, citrus...

• Cup of Excellence History in Bolivia

  Sat 04 October, 2008
  Bolivia Cup of Excellence

  The ground-breaking, first Cup of Excellence competition in Bolivia was held in 2004 with another following in 2005. Both were very small competitions in terms of participation.

  The competition here was cancelled in 2006 for political reasons.

  A successful comeback in 2007 led to a record number of farmer entries in 2008 – nearly 300 samples were entered (any farmer, large or small, free to enter one sample of coffee per farm).

  The samples entered must be associated with a “lot” of coffee – usually between 15 to 50 bags of 60kg. These will ultimately be sold on an internet auction should the coffee win a Cup of Excellence award, with proceeds from the sale going back to the farmer.

  There were 26 winning farmers in 2007, with most lots selling for over $5/lb of coffee (as a guide, Fairtrade price is $1.35/lb including social premium). The majority were small-holder farmers who are members of cooperatives in their local area.

  The Cup of Excellence helps not only to raise the overall quality of Bolivian coffee but also raise the profile of Bolivian coffee in the marketplace. The proven knock-on effects of raising profile and increasing quality are higher prices for farmers who focus on producing a better product. Award winning farmers often find long term relationships with roasters as a result.

   

• Growing Coffee in Bolivia

  Fri 03 October, 2008
  Bolivia

  Bolivia does not have a significant consumer profile for coffee producing, but is increasingly regarded in the speciality coffee industry as the most promising and under-valued origin in the world.

  Much of coffee grown in the fertile and mountainous Yungas region, centred on the town of Caranavi. Bolivia has around 20,000 families farming coffee, which makes it relatively small industry. More than 99% of these are small-holder farmers – often coffee is the cash crop on mixed, subsistence farms.

  Coca leaf production is a particular problem in Bolivia as it brings in higher financial benefits for poor farmers (Bolivia is now the 3rd largest producer of cocaine in the world).

  All of the coffee produced in Bolivia is Arabica (none of the poor quality Robusta) and primarily the “Typica” Arabica, one of the very oldest varietals that was first cultivated in Yemen. Most other origins have replaced the high quality Typica with higher yielding, more disease resistant varietals.

  Virtually all coffee production in

• Background

  Thu 02 October, 2008
  the “worst road in the world”. Not for the faint hearted…

  Western Bolivia: Andes and mountainous. Generally lush, forested and fertile until the higher altitudes where it becomes more of a harsh environment. Capital La Paz highest in world at around 12,000 ft above sea level. Primarily indigenous people (especially the Aymara) in these parts.

  Eastern Bolivia: lower lying, flatter and tropically hot. Most wealth and natural resources, especially gas, found here and primarily settled by people of European descent, centred around the city of Santa Cruz.

  Recent Politics

  President Evo Morales is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, with supporters primarily in the west of the country. Pretty much follows the socialist policies of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and with a strong anti-US rhetoric – the US ambassador was ejected from Bolivia a couple of weeks before I travelled there.

  The government is trying to bring about constitutional change to allow wealth and resource redistribution amongst the poor, much to the opposition of the five eastern states where much of the wealth exists. There have been recent violent clashes and protests from both sides but, fingers crossed; a...