Zakat Foundation of America supports Yemen’s historic ‘National Yemen Coffee Auction’
Image: National Yemen Coffee Auction
The Mokha Institute began the process of organising the National Yemen Coffee Auction in October 2021. Integral support came from Yemen’s coffee community and a few visionary organisations, the first of whom was Zakat Foundation of America, an NGO, which, according to its website, “embodies the inclusive beauty of Islam through programs that reach the destitute of all faiths both at home and abroad.”
This is the first public nationwide auction open to all coffees from across Yemen, celebrating the best that Yemen has to offer and connecting coffee producers and exporters to the international market. Halil Demir, the executive director of Zakat Foundation of America, and a strong supporter of the auction said, “The National Yemen Coffee Auction brings coffee — a Yemeni cultural staple — to the global stage. We at Zakat Foundation of America believe The Mokha Institute will help Yemeni coffee farmers achieve financial independence to uplift their families and communities.”
The National Yemen Coffee Auction (NYCA) fulfills a desire echoed throughout coffee communities in Yemen: to see a national public auction organised to unify and amplify the voice of Yemen’s coffee community. The Mokha Institute aims to enhance and promote economic growth of Yemen, create a market for Yemeni coffee producers to directly engage international buyers and enable the expansion of the market for Yemeni coffee.
The Mokha Institute (TMI) is a nonprofit organisation with offices in northern California and Yemen. TMI’s mission is to empower coffee communities with industry expertise, training and education, and providing holistic livelihood support.
The National Yemen Coffee Auction is a collaboration between the Union of Yemeni Coffee Farmer cooperatives, Yemen’s Unity of Coffee Organization, which seeks to promote Yemeni coffee internationally as well as draft sector policies to support producers, exporters and solve the concerns of workers across the industry; the Yemeni Coffee Exporters Association, and the Mokha Institute.
Registration for the NYCA will be open until 15 August; limited samples are available until that time on a first-come, first-serve basis. The auction will take place on 31 August. The auction will be held through an online platform that will list the coffee lots for sale to allow buyers from around the world to submit their bids on these exceptional Yemeni specialty coffee lots. To register for the NYCA, click here.
“What we are trying to achieve in Yemen is to bring hope and prosperity through specialty coffee,” said Mokhtar Alkhanshali, co-founder of The Mokha Institute. “Every human being who touches this coffee — from the nursery to the farm, to the mill, to the sorting station, to the warehouse, to the roastery, to the cafe—is called upon to achieve excellence. And each of those human beings is of equal value. This auction is a step toward achieving that equality. And a step toward living up to the excellence we are called to. Zakat Foundation of America is a part of this excellence and together, we look forward to scaling their efforts in Yemen to new heights and making the hopes of Yemeni farmers into reality.”
To learn more about the National Yemen Coffee Auction, watch the newly released video: Video|NYCA (nationalyemencoffeeauction.org).