The 2021 Best of Yemen coffee auction from the Alliance for Coffee Excellence and Qima coffee resulted in an average purchase price of USD$63.26 per pound of green coffee.
Buyers from 12 countries - predominantly Asia, the Middle East and the United States - purchased the 22 winning lots with total sales reaching nearly $400,000 for 6,100 pounds of coffee.
Mohammed Merhi, the owner of United Arab Emirates-based roasting company Cypher Coffee, said the company purchased winning coffee for its distinct attributes and to support farmers within the war-torn country where the coffee trade was born.
Merhi hopes to support the livelihoods of Yemeni coffee farmers and their families for the long term through the initiative.
Through the partnership between Qima coffee and ACE, Yemen was the first country in ACE's private collection auction series in 2019. For the third annual Best of Yemen auction, coffee submissions were accepted from all over the country, with nearly 2000 samples.
At the auction, the top-scoring coffee was purchased for $101.01 and $101.03 per pound in split lots by multiple private companies. The highest price in the auction, at $207.50 per pound, was coffee produced by Yahya Allahaba.
Overall, the auction generated nearly $400,000 in green coffee sales, 10 percent of which Qima coffee is donating to the Qima Foundation Tomorrow's Leaders programme for Yemeni youth.
