Competitividad de los cafés robustas especiales por origen y métodos de beneficio, en Ecuador: 2016-2022

Abstract

Ecuador has the potential to become a producer of specialty robusta coffees. To be classified as special, a coffee must obtain an organoleptic rating of ≥ 80 points, assessed by a panel of tasters. The analysis of seven consecutive years of competitive events had as objectives: to describe the evolution of the sensory ratings of the 10 best Robusta coffees/year and to project the behavior of the maximum expected sensory ratings in the years 2023 and 2024. The results allowed determine that the maximum sensory rating of the 10 best Robusta coffees increased from 84.4 to 86.13 SCA points. Congolensis coffee genotypes represent 93% of the best coffees and only 7% corresponded to Conilón coffee. By territory, the coffees grown in the humid tropical zone (Orellana and Sucumbíos), were statistically the same (p=0.747) and these were very different from the coffees of the dry tropical zones (p=0.0002). The projection of the maximum expected scores in 2023 and 2024 indicate probable scores of 85.4 and 85.6 points at the lower limit of confidence and 86.78 and 87.02 points at the upper limit of confidence, in your order, denoting there will be continual improvement in mug quality