Watching and Waiting
We're waiting to learn if we'll be the proud owners of some new crop Hacienda Esmeralda green coffee. We've got a proxy at today's auction, which is still going on (live).
Two years ago a Hacienda Esmeralda fetched $50.25/lb. at the Best of Panama auction. And last year, it fetched $130/lb at the BoP.
Without getting too complicated about this year's new auction process, the Peterson family, which owns the Hacienda la Esmeralda coffee plantation, took itself out of the 2008 Best of Panama competition in order to do a separate auction of their own coffees. As HlE had won the Best of Panama each of the past four years, the Peterson's decision to hold their own auction was lauded as it allowed other coffees from other producers to fetch higher prices in this year's Best of Panama, which was held on April 17.
We already know we're not going to get coffee from any of the more expensive batches as we went in with a fixed ceiling on what we'd bid. Prices for the top six lots (Batches 1-4) currenly range from $28.00 to $71.25 per pound of green (unroasted) coffee. Other lots are still fetching bids in the $6-$12 range. Of note, one bidder (#583) is trying awfully hard to lock up batches 1-3, so far at a cost of $72,000!
But as everything coming out the plantation has been very good, it becomes a matter of degree as to just how phenomenal the coffee will be. Unfortunately, we were aiming at Batches 8-9, which were harvested "South of the Creek" and which have cupped very well, but those are already above our ceiling. We may still end up with something from Batch 5 (Hoguera and Frente Poldo) but the competition for each of the lots 103 being auctioned has been intense, so we're not going to learn if we succeeded or not for a little while yet.
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