FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Missoula MT. (June 14, 2006)- 33 Honduras Cup of Excellence® winners auctioned their exemplary coffees during a four hour worldwide Internet auction held on the Cup of Excellence® website. Bidders logged on from Taiwan to Vancouver hoping to purchase one of the coffees chosen during the last international cupping competition held in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The top 12 coffees averaged $5.27/lb.- multiple times what the farmers would receive on the New York “C” market. At $3.33, the average price per pound for all 33 was higher than the previous year’s auction indicating much more interest worldwide in Honduras specialty coffees. Susie Spindler, the Executive Director of the Cup of Excellence® program indicated that, “Most of the top few coffees were very close in score during the international competition process, as little as a .5 difference in points. It is nice when all of these high quality coffees receive a premium at the auction, not just the #1 coffee,” she said. “In fact, two other coffees received a higher price than the winning coffee, which was a large lot. This just proves that roasters worldwide are very different about the flavor profiles they will a pay premium for,” she continued.

The coffee lots were split evenly between buyers from North America, Europe and Japan. 14 companies from the USA, 9 companies from Japan, 14 companies from Europe and 2 companies from Canada purchased the 33 winning coffees. 632 bags of approximately 152 pounds each were sold for a total price of well over $300,000.

Of particular interest to some of the bidders was young Jose Geovany Martinez, who took 3rd place in the competition. He is carrying on the family tradition of producing exquisite coffee. His father, Gregorio Martinez took 1st place in the 2004 Cup of Excellence® competition and since that time has handed the farm down to his son, Jose. Japanese roasters Maruyama Coffee and the Mikatajuku group purchased this winning coffee in 2004 at a significant premium and picked it up again at this auction.

This is the 24th auction for the Cup of Excellence® program and is the first of the Central American auctions. Nicaragua’s best will be sold June 22nd, 2006. El Salvador and Guatemala are scheduled for the weeks that follow. For more information or for a complete list of buyers and winning farmers log on to www.cupofexcellence.org. The program is owned by the non-profit Alliance for Coffee Excellence Inc., in partnership with coffee producing countries.