BREAKING: SCA Suspends Dubai Events Following Sprudge Report

Earlier today, World Coffee Events announced their troubling decision to award several international coffee competitions to Dubai in 2018. Turns out maybe not so fast.

This just in from the SCA:

World Coffee Events, an event management organization owned by the Specialty Coffee Association, announced today that Amsterdam, Dubai and Belo Horizonte would be hosting World Coffee Championships events in 2018. Dubai was selected to host the Cezve/Ibrik Championship, World Brewers Cup, World Cup Tasters Championship, and World Coffee Roasting Championship next September.

Following the announcement, coffee news website Sprudge released reporting on the use of slave labor and abuses against the LGBTQ community in the UAE. We have followed the response to the announcement and have heard from many in our community today about this decision. It is clear that the UAE’s human rights issues were not taken into consideration in the selection process. This is a serious problem that shows that our selection process was not broad or inclusive enough and we at the SCA intend to correct it.

For this reason, we have decided to suspend further planning on these four events in Dubai while we consult with the Boards of Directors of the SCA and the WCE. We commit ourselves to developing the appropriate policies and procedures that ensure we have gathered enough information to make the best possible decisions for how and where we engage in the world for all current and future activities.

More information coming soon.

This story is developing…

Read our original coverage here.

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