Cup of Fair Trade Coffee Competition, Bolivia

The Cup of Excellence is a coffee quality competition that takes place in coffee growing countries throughout Latin America. Each country's best samples are identified and "cupped" by coffee buyers from around the world, then sold at auction. The event helps to generate sales for farmers, raise the profile of a country's coffee sector and educate farmers about coffee quality. When the 2006 Cup of Excellence event in Bolivia was cancelled, farmers from FECAFEB (the Federation of Bolivian Coffee Exporters) and the folks at Cooperative Coffees decided to do something about it.

They developed the idea for a "Cup of Fair Trade Coffee" event that would replicate some aspects of the traditional Cup of Excellence events and introduce some important new innovations designed to better serve small-scale farmers, like inviting more representatives from farmer cooperatives to participate in the cupping event and creating opportunities for them to learn directly from U.S. cupping and coffee quality experts. When they asked us for support from the CRS Fair Trade Fund, we were proud to help.

Bolivia's first ever "Cup of Fair Trade Coffee" event took place on September 28-October 1, 2006 in the Andean highland town of Caranavi.  Chris Treter owns Higher Grounds Trading Company (a CRS Fair Trade Coffee Program partner) with his wife, Jody. Chris participated in the event, and brought freelance photographer Gary Howe along to document it.

Watch Gary’s narrated slideshow of the Cup of Fair Trade Coffee event.

Learn more about the CRS Fair Trade Fund.

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