NEWS & STORIES
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Congratulations Flori |
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Filed under News and Stories
The gorgeous Flori Marin, who is the director of Mercanta, has been voted onto the Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) board of directors.
ACE is a non-profit organisation that owns and manages the Cup of Excellence programme. ACE works in partnership with the host countries to execute the competition, the auction and to advise on and manage any other quality coffee programs that enhance the understanding and the appreciation of exemplary coffee.
Flori brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the role. From the age of 17, she worked in coffee milling facilities in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama. Since 1997 she has been a Director at Mercanta traveling extensively to source exceptional coffees and to assist growers in accessing and building relationships with the most demanding roasters around the world.
She participated on the very first and the milestone 50th Nicaragua Cup of Excellence jury as well as juries in Colombia, Rwanda, Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica. She also manages a coffee farm in Costa Rica giving her a unique perspective of the issues faced by farmers.
[I}'I have a very close relationship with specialty coffee growers and have been at the forefront of providing market access for many producers. I speak fluent Spanish and travel extensively and can carry the Cup of Excellence flag to five continents. Wherever possible I would seek to find a way at putting Cup of Excellence on a more secure financial footing. ACE needs to broaden its consumer base as well as its origin base. Most of the specialty industry is aware of Cup of Excellence whether they participate or not. But most consumers have very little recognition or understating of the brand. It is a far superior concept than any other certification and if I can help build one quarter of the awareness that these other brands have and help to put forward the case for Cup of Excellence, that will be a significant achievement'.
