Lao Coffee Association

“Taste of Laos” is a coffee event to help to raise the coffee profile from Laos within International Buyers.

This year the CLEAN Project is partnering with the Coffee Quality Institute (CQI), ITC and partners from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), The Department of Agriculture (DOA) and The Lao Coffee Association (LCA) to hold a Lao Green Coffee Competition. This auction and competition aim to promote a quality culture highlighting and rewarding high quality coffee and the producers of the coffee. The overall objective is to promote the Laos specialty & fine coffee industry and individual businesses to a global audience of buyers.

The competition will follow SCA and CQI scoring standard to identify the best quality coffee from Laos. The feedback from the jury will be used as the basis for detailing the coffee on sale in the auction to you the buyers.

View Results

Auction times in your region

2nd August 2022, at 10:00am (London)

  • 02:00am Los Angeles
  • 05:00am New York
  • 10:00am London
  • 12:00pm Riyadh
  • 16:00pm Vientiane
  • 16:00pm Jakarta
  • 17:00pm Shanghai
  • 18:00pm Tokyo
  • 18:00 pm Seoul
  • 20:00pm Sydney

The goals of the Competition

This competition’s objective is to foster a quality culture in the Laos coffee sector by:

  • Identifying high quality arabica and robusta coffee lots
  • Rewarding the winners and promoting them to a global coffee audience
  • Showcasing what specialty coffees are available and the farmers, cooperatives, processors and exporters that produce these Laos coffees.

Arabica & Robusta
Categories in the Competition:

Semi Washed/Washed Process

Honey Process

Natural Process

Other: non-traditional fermentation and/or experimental fermentation process

How will coffee be selected for this auction?

To have this competition recognized and valued by the local and international coffee industry. This will be accomplished through alignment with globally accepted protocols, principles and standards of CQI.

Competition Technical Lead and Judge Supervisor

Todd Arnette, CQI Quality Evaluation Program Manager

Observers and Facilitators in Laos:

  • Alexandre Dahan & Ms. Ms. Phiengphaneth Chanthalangsy, Winrock International
  • Mr. Sengchanh Khammountha, Vice President, Lao Coffee Association (LCA)
  • Khankeo, ITC (or other as assigned)
  • Tyler Gant, Yuni Coffee Co, licensed Q Grader

International Tasting Panels:

This year, the arabica and robusta coffee will be separated and sent to two different grading hubs. The hubs will convene their cuppers to assess the quality of this year’s samples and select and rank the best coffees.

These grading hubs have been selected by CQI and will be managed by CQI. All cuppers on the grading panels will be licensed Q Graded. The judges at each grading hub will be calibrated, under CQI’s guidance, before grading coffee samples.

Arabica Coffees

DMCC Coffee Center, Dubai, UAE
Mako Nyakotyo
DMCC Coffee Centre
Plot S10814, Street S109
Jebel Ali Free Zone – South
P.O. Box 48800
Dubai, UAE

Robusta Coffees

Coffee Lab International, Vermont, USA
Mane Alves
11 Cabin Lane
Waterbury Center
VT 05677
(802) 244-6176 Ext: 13
Cell 802-777-7363

The process of the competition:

  • Sample Submissions: 21st March to 4th April
  • Reception, screening, coding, shipping: 28th March to 8th April
  • Coffees graded, scored, and ranked by grading hubs: 18th April to 9th May
  • Results tabulated, communicated to Winrock: 16th May
  • Results finalized, ready to announce: 20th May
  • Results tabulated comm Winrock: 23rd May
  • Results shared between WI & ITC: 25th May
  • Award Ceremony (live event in Laos): 3rd June
  • On-line Auction: 2nd August

about the participants

The participants of the second annual Lao Fine & Specialty Coffee Evaluation Competition were identified and invited by the Winrock CLEAN project, the ITC Arise Plus Lao PDR project and the Laos Coffee Association. They are Market Ready Actors engaged in the production of Lao coffee. Participants include - but are not limited to - farmers, coffee cooperatives, processors and exporters with coffee farms and post-harvest processing facilities.

the organizers of this event

This project is supported by:

Connecting Lao smallholders to high-value markets

Thanks to Lao Coffee Competition and Auction 2022, Lao coffee businesses are encouraged to improve products quality and create business networking with international buyers. The auction, which is promoted to global coffee buyers, offers a chance to showcase the specialty coffees available from Laos giving exposure to the coffee industry as a whole and to the different coffee producers and exporters participating in the competition and auction. The direct connection with buyers through the auction means that producers and exporters have the possible opportunity to discover new buyers in new markets which they can go on to form longer term business relationships beyond the auction. ITC’s ARISE Plus Lao PDR project is honored being a partner supporting this important event.

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