Coffee cupping contest opens in Goroka today

By ZACHERY PER
THE second international coffee cupping competition dubbed the “pride of PNG” starts in Goroka today.
International coffee cupper Willem Boot of Boot Coffee of California, who arrived in Goroka last week, will conduct the competition.
Eight other international cuppers will help Mr Boot in the competition.
Three cuppers from America and one female cupper from Australia arrived in Goroka over the weekend and they would be joined by four local cuppers that PNG Coffee Growers Federation (PNGCGF) had trained.
The American coffee experts were from some of the leading specialty coffee roasters in the US currently in the forefront of international specialty coffee market, Mr Boot said.
In an interview with The National, Mr Boot said the result of the first cupping competition in 2005 had raised interests of international coffee buyers to import coffee from co-operative groups who were affiliates of PNGCGF.
Mr Boot said the new challenge in this second cupping competition was to create a new specialty coffee market for high-quality coffee beans produced by the co-operative groups.
He said the competition also aimed to find coffee quality in small coffee co-operatives and to use the information to expand market overseas.
“Identifying new coffee quality will lead towards creating more international buyers interests for the overall coffee produced in PNG,” he said.
Mr Boot had conducted similar coffee cupping competition in Ethiopia, Panama, Colombia, El Salvador and 15 other countries around the world.
He said the best of PNG coffee quality would compete later with the bests from other countries.