FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Missoula Mt. (October 6, 2005) Thirty three coffee farmers watched the four hour long online auction today to find out which roaster had purchased their winning Cup of Excellence lot. Buyers from the Europe US, Canada, Japan and Malaysia bought all 33 lots for an average price of $3.66 lb, multiple times the normal C contract and well above even most specialty coffee prices. Eleven of the thirty-three lots fetched more than $4.00 lb and nine more were sold at over $3.00lb during the online bidding.

Two European roasters paid the top price of $16.25 lb.; Monmouth of the UK and Estate Coffee of Denmark will share the right to sell the number one coffee to their customers. The international jury described this winning coffee, entered by Sr. Gregorio Arnulfo Batina, a small farmer from the Nariño coffee region, as being very sweet and complex with flavor characteristics of lime, citrus and melon and with very rich body.

Dr. Gabriel Silva, head of the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia indicated that he “celebrated the results of this competition and the coffees it has uncovered which have demonstrated once again that Colombia is producing great quality ". He was extremely pleased with the participation of so many buyers from all over the world and continued that, “the prices are confirmation that Colombian coffee is gaining the position as the best in the world".

“Cup of Excellence prides itself on being a much needed program that provides financial resources and hope back to the hard working smaller farmer and discovers phenomenal coffees for high end roasters at the same time”, explained Susie Spindler, Executive Director of The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, the owner of the competition-auction program.

Following the pattern set by many of the recent Cup of Excellence auctions; small roasters came together in groups to buy seven of lots. The program encourages micro roasters to join together to buy coffees that would otherwise not be available to them. Many of these same winning bidders will visit the winning farmers in the future to create more volume long term buying relationships.

The Cup of Excellence cooperating importers will now coordinate these small lots into the different marketplaces with the lion’s share going to Japan. Japanese roasters bid during the late night hours to pick up all or part of 19 lots. Kato Coffee of Nagoya picked up four of the winning lots with competitive bidding.

Besides #1 lot, European companies will enjoy 8 of the 33 lots with Mocca Brenneri of Oslo capturing all or part of five. US companies in Washington, Oregon, Kansas, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, Maine and Montana bought coffee as did one company based in Toronto, Canada.

This was the 20th Cup of Excellence auction. The next two scheduled 2005 coffee competitions will be held in Bolivia and Brazil. For full auction results, detailed winning farm information and jury descriptions or to become part of the Cup of Excellence program log on to www.cupofexcellence.org.