Colombian coffee wins Grounds for Health auction

Premium organic coffee Mesa de los Santos has become the first Colombian coffee to win the online auction organized by Grounds for Health, an international NGO that promotes cervical cancer prevention in coffee-growing communities around the world. With coffees donated by producers and importers, the proceeds from the auction will support Grounds for Health's prevention initiatives in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nicaragua and Peru. This year, there were more than 14,000 pounds of premium green coffee donated by 27 producers and importers, raising a total of US$53,221.   Mesa de los Santos is a medium roast, shade-grown coffee with exquisite aroma and sweet, mild, chocolaty flavour. The 30-pound Mesa de los Santos box, donated by Caravela Coffee and Hacienda El Roble, fetched a total price of US$1,854 (US$61.8 per pound). It received the second highest number of bids (72) after the Guatemalan farm El Injerto's coffee (88 bids), which reached a price of US$35 per pound. “This proves how far Colombia's specialty coffees can go,” Roberto Vélez, CEO of the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC), said in a statement. “It opens a path that other Colombian coffee growers interested in producing high-quality coffee can follow,”.