The future of coffee: Golden Cup winners bring fair and quality coffees to Expo Dubai 2
The future of coffee: Golden Cup winners bring fair and quality coffees to Expo Dubai 1
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The future of coffee: Golden Cup winners bring fair and quality coffees to Expo Dubai

28 février 2022
ITC News

The Fairtrade Golden Cup awards bring recognition – and new opportunities – to farmers who work hard to produce high-quality Fairtrade coffee. The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers (CLAC) hosts this competition across a range of countries with its regional partners and support from the International Trade Centre’s Alliances for Action programme. Recent Golden Cup editions in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Ethiopia with Fairtrade Africa were a huge success.

The objective: Value addition and sustainable production

The tournament contributes to the promotion of Fairtrade coffees in the specialty market, both at origin and in global markets. By promoting the opening of markets for Fairtrade coffee, it’s possible to both add value to the product and promote ethical and sustainable production processes. These are core objectives of the Alliances for Action initiative and form part of the International Trade Centre’s wider mandate.

In Ethiopia and through ITC’s Netherlands Trust Fund V project, Alliances for Action focuses on building platforms for better market linkages and sales, whilst building capacity of small businesses and producer cooperatives.

The competition format

In a friendly atmosphere, the competition allows producers in each country to share their best coffees, exchange information and learn more about coffee quality. Fairtrade producer organizations submit their samples to be judged by a panel of certified Q-graders. The winners are recognized with an award, and winning samples are sometimes taken to prestigious international trade shows like the Specialty Coffee Expo (United States) and World of Coffee (Europe).

A rewarding opportunity for small-scale producers

This competition is an opportunity to foster relationships with potential new buyers and connect producers directly to traders and roasters. It also adds value to Fairtrade-certified coffee and rewards producers for their skill and efforts. For Vanúsia Nogueira, recently elected as the new Executive Director of the International Coffee Organization, the tournament is an important action to promote small-scale coffee producers:

“Most people link Brazil to big coffee farms. But the reality is that 72% of Brazilian producers have less than 10 hectares of coffee planted. Promoting these small-scale producers is crucial, as is shining a light on the quality of their production and the sustainability of their process,” she says.

Winning coffee samples of the Fairtrade Golden Cup competitions in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Ethiopia will be presented at Expo Dubai 2020 at a private coffee tasting organized by ITC’s Alliances for Action in partnership with CLAC and other partners on 28 February 2022 at the UN Hub.

About the Event

‘What’s brewing? The future of coffee’, will be hosted by ITC’s Alliances for Action programme with partners in the UN Hub at Expo Dubai on 28 February 2022, 10:00-12:00 CET / 13:00-15:00 Dubai time. The focus will be on exploring a post-COVID future for the coffee industry in terms of what we may expect in the spheres of quality, production, consumer trends and more. It will also include a private coffee tasting session highlighting partners’ sustainably produced coffees.

To participate online, please register here.