In June this year, Panama held the 2024 28th Best of Panama competition (Bast Of Panama, BOP for short), a Panamanian green bean competition founded in 1996 by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP).

The purpose of this competition is to select the best coffee beans in Panama and let buyers from around the world bid on them through the BOP auction platform; many of the winning coffee beans command high prices because of their high quality and flavor. And from August 7 to August 8, Panama also held the 2024 Best of Panama auction, and the auction results have already been announced.

Geisha Washed Group

Geisha Natural Group

Multi-variety group

It is worth noting that this year's top lot was won by the natural Geisha from Elida Estate; the natural Geisha from Elida Estate took first place in the competition with a high score of 95.13, and in this auction the bidding price reached as high as 10013 USD/kg.

At present, based on the exchange rate, 1 USD equals about 7.16 RMB, and the natural Geisha from Elida Estate reaches 71898.1 RMB/kg. This price shocked the coffee world and set a new world record.

Because in last year's 2023 BOP auction, Carmen Estate won that year's championship with a washed Geisha scoring 96.5, and it sold for 10005 USD/kg, which at the time had already set a new world record for both competition score and sale price.

And although this year's natural Geisha from Elida Estate could not surpass that in score, in auction price it once again broke the world record at 10013 USD/kg. In addition, in this auction, the rising star Lorani Estate won first place in the washed Geisha group with a high score of 95.5, and in this auction it sold for 10002 USD/kg.

Many industry insiders say that this year's prices are much higher than before, all because in the 2023 BOP Varietals category, Elida Estate's Chiroso was auctioned at 488 USD/kg. By the 2024 BOP Varietals category, again Elida Estate's Chiroso reached an auction price of 1630 USD/kg, roughly 3 times the 2023 price.

Although the first Best of Panama (BOP) competition was held in 1996, by 2002 the winning coffee was sold at 2.37 USD/lb, which at the time was already five times the world market price. Then in 2004, Hacienda La Esmeralda entered the Geisha variety into the Best of Panama (BOP) competition and auction, and its exceptionally high cupping score along with a sale price of 21 USD/lb made the Geisha variety famous. In the years since, BOP coffee auction prices have continued to set new records.

Earlier, in China, a coffee shop launched a pour-over coffee made with the 2023 BOP top-scoring Carmen Estate beans, priced at between 4988 yuan and 13333 yuan per cup. These high-priced coffees are influenced by factors such as the auction cost of the coffee beans, shipping, taxes, store operating costs, and losses during roasting. This year's auction prices are even higher, so if a coffee shop sells a cup of the top-scoring lot, the price could be even higher.