World's Best Barista Competition Held in Busan! ... Hosting the '2024 World of Coffee Asia & World Barista Championship'

2024.5.1.~4. BEXCO, Over 11,000 Participants from 120+ Countries

World Coffee Champions 3 Produced, Busan as a Global Coffee City

Busan City secured the hosting rights on the 24th for the global coffee exhibition ‘2024 World of Coffee Asia (hereinafter WOC Asia)’ and the world’s top barista competition ‘World Barista Championship (hereinafter WBC).’

World of Coffee 2023, Athens. [Image source=WOC official website]

In November last year, to foster the local coffee industry, Busan City signed a business agreement with the Specialty Coffee Association (hereinafter SCA). Since then, through consultations with SCA partner company Expo Forum (CEO Shin Hyun-dae), including international event attraction activities and on-site inspections, it was confirmed that the ‘2024 WOC Asia & WBC’ will be held from May 1 to 4, 2024, at BEXCO in Busan.

Officials from the city and SCA expect around 11,000 coffee industry professionals from over 120 countries to attend.

The ‘World of Coffee (WOC)’ hosted by SCA has traditionally been held annually only in Europe, but this time, an Asian tour version has been newly established, making it highly significant that WOC Asia will be held for the first time in Asia next year in the ‘Coffee City Busan.’

‘WOC Asia’ is a coffee-specialized exhibition that showcases the latest trends across the entire coffee-related industry. Visitors can explore new products and technologies from world-renowned roastery cafes, machine manufacturers, and coffee bean suppliers. The event features various programs including the WBC, education, seminars, exhibition booths, and coffee tastings with global coffee industry stakeholders.

Among these, the WBC is an international coffee competition that selects the world’s best barista. It attracts the attention of coffee enthusiasts every year, and in 2019, barista Jeon Ju-yeon (CEO of Momos Coffee) became the first Korean to win, gaining widespread recognition domestically.

2019 Jeon Ju-yeon Barista became the first Korean to win the World Barista Championship award ceremony. [Image source=Momos Coffee]

The competition involves champions from about 60 countries, who prepare a total of 12 beverages (espresso, milk drinks, and creative menus) using an espresso machine within 15 minutes to determine the winner.

Next year’s competition will be organized by Expo Forum, which has successfully hosted the ‘Seoul Cafe Show,’ Asia’s largest global coffee expo, for over 20 years.

The ‘2023 Korea National Barista Championship (KNBC),’ the selection contest for the barista who will represent Korea this year, is being held together with ‘SCA MARKET’ from the 23rd to April 25 at BEXCO in Busan.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-jun is scheduled to attend the finals on the 25th to honor the event.

Busan handles about 93% of Korea’s coffee imports through Busan Port and is one of the rare cities worldwide that has produced three world coffee champions.

To leverage this excellent location and human resources, Busan City is implementing various projects this year, including ▲ a ‘Basic Plan for Coffee Industry Promotion’ to establish a vision and development strategy for the coffee industry ▲ hosting a ‘Local Coffee Festival’ to foster Busan’s representative coffee festival ▲ a ‘Customized Youth Coffee Expert Training and Startup Support Project’ in Yeongdo-gu, designated as a population decline area ▲ a ‘Coffee Industry Infrastructure and Enterprise Support Project’ to assist marketing and technology development for coffee-related companies ▲ and creating a ‘Coffee Theme Street’ linked with urban regeneration projects in Yeongdo-gu.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “Busan has the port and airport facilities to export and import coffee, and having produced multiple world coffee champions, the conditions for the coffee industry to develop are well established.” He added, “We expect that hosting the 2024 global coffee event will serve as a catalyst for fostering the local coffee industry.”

“Coffee has a very high potential to develop not just as a simple commodity but as an industry linked with tourism and distribution,” he said, adding, “We will strive to grow Busan into a global coffee industry hub.”

City Council Chairman Ahn Sung-min said, “When the coffee mega event is held next year, we expect to showcase the passionate spirit of Coffee City Busan to the world together with Busan citizens,” and added, “The City Council will actively cooperate to ensure a successful event.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.