The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t stop the yearly edition of Cup of Excellence. The competition is generally held nationally, with selected judges testing various coffee from all over the country, and then internationally, with only the finest scoring coffee.
This year, due to the pandemic, most of the competition was held remotely, with judges cupping from their own locations.The Cup of Excellence is the most recognised award for coffee worldwide, allowing farmers to be known and awarded for their quality output every year. Farmers are eager to participate, it’s a great chance for them to be appreciated and recognised for their hard work.Not less importantly, the Cup of Excellence allows farmers to be put into contact with buyers and experts worldwide, especially for those coffee managing to score very high. An appositely set up auction is held after the competition ends to permit buyers to grab the most sought of coffee. This year it will be in June and hopefully the pandemic won’t affect it much if at all.
Cup of Excellence 2020 Ethiopia
The 2020 edition of the Cup of Excellence was held between 6th and 10th of April. Hundreds of farms have had the chance to submit more than 1400 of their coffee to the jury, as the Cup of Excellence doesn’t ask for any fee to just participate in the competition. Only the top 30 scoring 87+ awarded as international winners whose coffee to be auctioned accordingly the rest to be auctioned as national winners after passing five times blind cupping by international judges.
Photo: Asefa Dukamo
The Ethiopian selection for the prestigious award saw on 7th place the Asefa Dukamo Orma, (Korma), owner and General Manager of Daye Bensa Coffee Export Plc who owns farm located in the heart of Bensa district in Sidama region, at Shantawene village. This coffee is processed as natural, of the 74158 variety, and was awarded with a high score of 89.21, (the same score point as that put in the 6th place) which puts it straight into top 10 quality coffee. Even though it shins at the cup of excellence for first time this coffee have been winning continuously at the Good Food Awards in the USA and at different championships in Asia. Now one can imagine the coffee quality as theconsistency of the results talks about it. Our company, Daye Bensa have been an exporting company with over 14 years of experience, and the owners of the company working as coffee growers and supplier for over 28 years not considering their childhood activities and the one inherited from their parents have been helping the farmers and local community to develop themselves through the best practice of coffee farming and processing.
We interviewed Asefa about his feeling about this winning and he told us the following “I had no knowledge about cup of excellence and the benefits of winning at its completion. When it came to Ethiopia for the first time I submitted three coffee samples as a response for a call from the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority. Even though I have number of washing stations under my name they limited number of entry to three. Of these three samples the one from Shantawene washing station natural processed was awarded seventh place and I am very much happy. My happiness goes beyond the limit when different professionals and government officials from the coffee and tea authority to the regional and local offices called me to congratulate.I questioned myself what would have the result been had it been prepared with due attention of Cup of Excellence competition.We processed our coffee with a routine processing procedures we used to follow for last more than twenty years.I would like to thank everyone who took part in these coffee from tree to bag in looking after our beautiful coffee. I am now very much encouraged to do more in quality in every area from farming to processing. I am also hopeful this will bring us more customers who pay better price to our award winning coffee.”
We are proud in having the names of Asefa and his coffee in the list of this prestigious award. Coffee lovers who might be participating in the Cup of Excellence 2020 auctions which will be held between 22nd and 26th of June 2020 and others who may not get a chance to put their hands to this coffee are welcome to meet Asefa and coffee community working with him for further knowledge of Asefa and his coffee.we look forward to getting in touch with you through our contacts. We wish you all the best and enjoy our coffee.