Contact: Susie Spindler
Phone: 406-542-3509
Email:susie@montana.com

For Immediate Release:

Long Beach (December 10, 2002) The Brazil Cup of Excellence Internet auction set a new high price record today. The winning coffee lot from the #1 farm, sold for a $12.85 lb to Maruyama. Coffee. Mr. Maruyama, a Japanese roaster who fought off several last minute bids exclaimed "when I found out I won the lot I was very, very happy and now I can share this wonderful coffee with my customers. I thank the farmers who put such energy into all these excellent coffees".

The next highest lot purchased by Coop Norge Kaffe AS, a Norwegian roaster, went for $8.10lb. Wataru & Co. Ltd., a Japanese importer who also bought two other lots, bought the third highest priced lot at $6.30lb for Ogawa Coffee. All of the auctioned lots sold for over $2.00 lb. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight sold for well over $3.00 lb.

Many of the Brazilian farmers watched the auction today via their computers. "There was just an amazing feeling that through this initiative there is a genuine concern for their welfare and a fair reward for their extra effort," declared Marcelo Vieira, President of The Brazil Specialty Coffee Association.

That demand worldwide is growing is evidenced by the record 1207 bids posted during the six and one half hour auction. This is the longest auction to date with bidding throughout the night and into the morning for Japan.

Buyers in the United States included Diedrich Coffee, The Roasterie, Coffee Tree Roasters, and Sweet Maria's Coffee Inc. Timothy's World Coffee of Canada was a winning bidder as well as Gala Coffee and Tea Ltd. from Dartforth, UK. Solberg and Hansen who has bought coffee at every auction was a high bidder again. Schlueter and Maack, a German importer and the Australian roaster Michel's Espresso captured one lot each. The additional Japanese buyers were Caravan Coffee Co. Ltd., Toa Coffee Co. Ltd., Bontain Coffee Co. Ltd., Arab Coffee, Nelson Coffee, Horiguchi Coffee, Toho Coffee, Nippon Coffee Trading, S. Ishimitsu & Co. Ltd., Times Club, Ltd., World Coffee Co. Ltd., and TCC Toyama Coffee.

"It is becoming more apparent", Vieira, continued "that the Cup of Excellence program is creating a worldwide web- based community of high quality coffee growers, traders, roasters and consumers. Buyers, jurors and farmers are considered to belong to a Cup of Excellence family."

"To those who are shocked about the high prices", says George Howell, the co-founder of Cup of Excellence and head judge, "I can only say that boutique wines and teas have been attracting prices for years that this auction has not yet touched. I hope it is only the beginning."

The auction was hosted on the Specialty Coffee Association of America web site Final results and the list of winning bidders are available at www.scaa.org or www.bsca.com.br. The Cup of Excellence® program is owned by The Alliance for Coffee Excellence, a US based non profit corporation.