FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Missoula Mt. (June 22, 2006) - Twenty five Nicaraguan coffee lots sold today in a five hour nail biting live internet auction that saw roasting companies battling for ownership on computers from offices located in Russia, Taiwan, Japan, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Norway, The Netherlands, the UK and throughout the USA. At stake were bragging rights in owning the year’s best coffees and selling these rare coffees to their discerning customers for a premium.

Bidders were willing to pay an average of $4.14lb for the 2006 winning Cup of Excellence coffees. The top 4 vote getters during the international cupping competition held last month in Nicaragua garnered over $5.00lb. These prices are multiple times the average price for even good quality coffee and proves that Nicaragua has gained a positive recognition in the gourmet coffee marketplace. All 25 of the coffee lots which ranged in size from 15 to 28 69 kilo bags received over $3.00 lb.

This was the fifth year for the Cup of Excellence program in Nicaragua and the twenty-fifth competition overall for a unique program that has consistently seen higher premiums paid to farmers for their award winning coffee and often to farmers who had no idea, before winning the competition, that their coffee was good enough to justify a bidding battle over the internet.

In many past auctions a single top coffee has often commanded the attention and the price, but with this auction higher prices were spread through out the entire field of winners. The largest lot at 28 bags, which ranked 8th place in the competition, received the second highest price of $7.05lb, proving that roasters know the value of the Cup of Excellence brand for all of the winning coffees and simply select the coffee that matches their coffee strategy.

For the twenty-fifth straight time Solberg and Hansen of Oslo, Norway has bought coffee at the auction, this year joining forces with a roaster in Seattle to win their favorite coffee.

The US bid mainly in groups of roasters working together to buy several lots.

For more information on the winning farmers, their stories, and a complete list of the buyers for the winning coffees 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. El Salvador and Guatemala’s winning Cup of Excellence coffees will be auctioned on June 29th and July11th, respectively.