Ecuador Gesha Lot Fetches $318 Per Kilogram at Record Auction

A washed Gesha grown by Andrés Yepez at Hosteria Canavalle in Ibarra, Imbabura sold for $318 per kilogram at the debut Ecuador Farmer's Collection auction on March 26, setting a new high for an Ecuadorian coffee at international auction. The winning bid came from Wolfing Coffee Museum, a China-based specialty buyer, on the platform co-run by Qima Coffee and the Alliance for Coffee Excellence.

Here is the math: at $318 per kilogram, a 20-gram pour-over costs $6.36 in raw ingredient. Pull it as an 18-gram espresso and the coffee itself runs $5.72 a shot. Factor in the roughly 15 percent weight loss during roasting and a standard 3x-to-4x café markup and that cup lands somewhere between $22 and $30 on a specialty menu, if it ever gets there. Microlots this size rarely reach a menu board; they circulate as allocated offerings to a roaster's most dialed-in accounts.

The washed process Yepez used is worth understanding when considering whether the price holds up. Washing strips the cherry before fermentation can layer in the heavy fruit sweetness that naturals and honeys contribute. What remains is the Gesha variety's clearest signal: jasmine florals, bergamot, white peach, a tea-like acidity that lingers. At $6.36 per cup in ingredient cost, the math is more grounded than most of what Panama's Best of Panama auction produces. The Lamastus Family Estates Elida Aguacatillo Gesha sold for $13,518 per kilogram in September 2024. Next to that, Yepez's lot is practically a value proposition.

Ecuador has not historically occupied a seat at the ultra-premium Gesha table. Panama, Colombia, and select East African producers have owned that conversation for two decades. The first Ecuador Farmer's Collection challenged that position directly: built around smallholder farmers from across Ecuador's producing regions, the March 26 auction gave producers a curated platform to reach international buyers with full traceability documentation. Ecuador won its first Cup of Excellence in 2021, a Typica Mejorado from Loja that scored 90.93 points, and the investment made since then is now visible in auction prices.

For roasters who want to explore Ecuador's Gesha potential without competing in an auction, the options are already available. La Noria, a farm in Vilcabamba, Loja, placed first in both the Ecuador Cup of Excellence and Ecuador Taza Dorada in 2023 with a Green Gesha processed as a double anaerobic washed at 2,000 to 2,150 meters. Moonwake Coffee Roasters has sourced a double-fermentation washed Green Gesha from the same region, grown by Tim Leahy and Bernard Uhe at 2,100 meters, with tasting notes of jasmine, peach parfait, bergamot, and dragonfruit. Onyx Coffee Lab has offered an Ecuador La Soledad Gesha to retail customers. These lots arrive at the variety's signature florals through a different route than the auction floor.

Whether Wolfing Coffee Museum's $318 bid represents a novelty premium for the first dedicated Ecuador auction to reach international attention, or the opening number in a sustained repositioning, will become clearer as the 2026 specialty calendar progresses. The Imbabura highlands now have a reference price, and producers across the country are watching what the market does with it.