Panama Geisha coffee sets record

Panama has set a new record with its world renowned Geisha coffee, as Asian buyers bid record breaking $601 a pound at the recent Best of Panama Coffee Auction. The coffee, from the winning 100-pound lot from Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, shattered previous price records.

The Geisha variety of coffee has played a crucial role raising the bar for the high-end coffee market in Panama. A large majority of Panama’s award winning coffees are of the Geisha variety. Hacienda La Esmeralda’s winning lot is a natural-process Geisha coffee that has been grown on Cañas Verdes Farm. It was purchased by Korea’s Kew Specialty Coffee Co.

The auction, presented by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama, brought experts from around the world together to sample and purchase from 51 lots comprising 5,950 pounds of green coffee. The coffee sold totaled $368,711, with an average price of $61.98 per pound.

The vast majority of buyers came from Asia with 37 of the winning lots going to buyers from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea.

Australian buyers bought seven of the lots, with the remaining lots going to buyers in the United States (1), Holland (1), France (1), the UK (2) and Saudi Arabia (2).