Best of the Pearl
This year, on the 24st of March, we will be running a specialty coffee auction for the Ugandan Coffee Federation and Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
This is a result of their competition "Best of the Pearl", which helps to find the very best Ugandan coffees.
Through this auction we aim to support Ugandan coffee farmers and provide them with market access to achieve the best price for their products.
There will be a National and International Jury for this competition. The feedback from the jury will be used as the basis for detailing the coffee on sale in the auction to you the buyers.
Register now and pre-order your sample set:
Auction times in your region
24th MARCH 2022, @ 10:00am (London)
- 03:00am: Los Angeles
- 06:00am: New York
- 10:00am: London
- 13:00am: Kampala
- 13:00am: Riyadh
- 17:00am: Jakarta
- 18:00pm: Shanghai
- 19:00pm: Tokyo
- 19:00 pm Seoul
- 21:00pm: Sydney
The Background to this Auction
The landscape in the organisation of the coffee competitions in Africa has changed quite dramatically in the last 4 or 5 years. Annual cupping competitions have played a role in African coffee for quite some time. These usually ended with an auction where the best coffees were sold to interested buyers.
However, during 2021 this all changed and has given individual in-country coffee associations the chance to organise their own competitions.
The Uganda Coffee Federation (UCF) is an umbrella non-profit organization for those in involved in the coffee supply chain in Uganda. They are tasked with the vision of promoting a thriving and sustainable coffee industry in Uganda. Coffee production in the country is far exceeding previous years volumes. The infrastucture has not developed accordingly. The UCF and UCDA see the development of this competition alongside this auction as a means for everyone involved in the coffee supply chain to take it's own development seriously.
Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) was established by an Act of Parliament 1991 and amended in 1994, Cap. 325 under the laws of the Republic of Uganda. UCDA is established as a public Authority and its mandate is to promote and oversee the coffee industry by supporting research, promoting production, controlling the quality and improving the marketing of coffee in order to optimize foreign exchange earnings for the country and payments to the farmers.
It is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal and is capable of suing or being sued in its corporate name.
UCDA Core Values: In pursuit of its mission, UCDA will be guided by a commitment to teamwork, professionalism, and client focus while promoting integrity, accountability with foresighted leadership as central to its work.
Over the last two years the opportunities for all coffee producing countries to run an auction have not been available. When the Ugandan Coffee Federation decided to run this one, they made an open invitation to all coffee producers in the country to submit their coffee for assessment to enter the competition.
In order to make this a credible competition, they have worked with International Trade Centre to put all the pieces in place to form a framework that will be sustainable in the future. This means this auction is supported by a national and international jury who will be able to take an objective view on the coffee submitted to the UCF and UCDA.
How will coffee be selected for this auction?
The coffees will be cupped, graded and judged by a panel of qualified and experienced national judges, using the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI) Arabica Coffees Score sheet and Protocols. We will also have a moderation round and then an experienced International Jury who will select the coffees that will be auctioned in this platform.
National Cupping Jury
The National Jury will manage the initial preselection and creation of the long list for later cupping rounds. This jury will provide a balanced view of coffee from around Uganda in equal measures of washed, naturals, honey processed coffees.
This is made up of 4 Q Graders in Uganda managed by the Head Judge Clare Rwakatogoro, and the judges, Jacob Batereigha, Brenda Mangeni and Rapheal Wafoyo, who have assessed the initial submission of coffees from all coffee producers. Each submission will be expected to meet specific requirements to be taken further. One of the basic requirements is that all lots should be Specialty Arabica Grade and have a cupping score of 83 points and above.
The timetable is as follows:
- Roasting: 14th-17th February 2022
- Calibration & Green Grading: 15th February 2022
- Cupping Sessions: 15th-17th February 2022
Meet the National Jury
International Jury
The best coffees will be taken forward for further cupping by an international jury where they will be shortlisted for the final lineup of coffee which will be ordered from 1st through 15th based upon their final score and auctioned to international buyers.
The timetable is as follows:
- Calibration: to be confirmed
- Cupping Session: 3rd and 4th March 2022
- Results: 5th March 2022
About the international jury
- The International Jury will be managed by the Head Judge Damon Chen from Blossom Valley inTaiwan and a group of experienced Q Graders to cup the coffee.
- All the judges will be Q-Graders for importers around the world.
- The top 10 coffees will be re-cupped, Round 4, to establish the final line-up for the coffees in the auction.
- We will use the feedback from the jury as the basis for detailing the coffee on sale in the auction to you the buyers.
- This set of coffee with the final samples selected by the International Jury will be sold and distributed to the buyers as they register, and purchase samples sets.
- All samples will be dispatched from Uganda.
- All shortlisted coffess will be secured by the Ugandan Coffee Federation to guarantee the quality and identity of the coffee sold to the buyers during the auction.
The Benefits to the Ugandan Coffee Community
Uganda’s coffee production is on the rise at an impressive rate, now at 5.1 million bags of exported at the end of 2020. Whilst the project's overall objective is to see a drive in demand for Ugandan coffees across the board there are three key issues that it seeks to address.
- Producer Recognition – the competition will help recognize those producers - by region and processing types - that are doing a superb job as their coffees continue to exceed all expectation. Producer Coffees that don’t make it the top auctioned lots will receive quality improvement reports and guidance.
- National Capacity Building – the project hopes to recognize and train national coffee quality champions to support them continuously and help discover the best of coffees Uganda has to offer.
- Infrastructural Support – With the speed of Uganda’s Coffee industry growing, producers need equipment and tools to ensure they produce award winning coffees. The competition organising committee has partnered with locally based equipment manufacturing companies to support the Best of the Pearl winners with free additional infrastructural support based on their needs.
Uganda Government Support
This programme is fully supported by The Government of Uganda through the national regulatory body: The Uganda Coffee Development Authority.
This will take the form of training and quality support will including the following:
- Cupping Labs
- Certified Quality Assurance Staff and Calibration
- Certification
- Verification and National Trainings supervision.
- Online and press support towards showcasing the event.
