ORIGIN Ethiopia
Stars align for Ethiopia THE INAUGURAL CUP OF EXCELLENCE COMPETITION AND AN OPEN EXPORT MARKET ARE CREATING NEW OPPORTUNITIES FORÂ PRODUCERS.
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his year, Ethiopia is hosting its first-ever Cup of Excellence (CoE) competition, the annual Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) event that identifies and celebrates the highest-quality coffees around the world. The auction this summer is the culmination of years toiling on the farms, weeks of cupping and scoring, and navigating daily hurdles as the novel coronavirus spread globally and threatened to cancel the competition. Given all the resources invested and record-levels of interest by farmers, ACE and its partners worked hard to ensure the competition stayed its course, albeit safely and with necessary modifications. The only major change, at the time of print, was the location of the inaugural event. For the first time in the CoE’s 20-year history, the competition will take place outside of origin due to travel and socialdistancing restrictions of the coronavirus.
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