In an email going out to exhibitors today, Specialty Coffee Organization announced the 2020 Re:co Symposium and Specialty Coffee Expo scheduled to take place in Portland, Oregon in April is canceled.

Exhibitors will receive a credit for next year's event or a full refund.

From the email:

Unfortunately, no other viable dates were available for the show to take place in Portland in 2020. We will be working with the SCA USA Chapter to explore options to hold the final US Coffee Championships of the year at a later date as appropriate. Re:co and Expo will return in April 2021 in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to every single one of our sponsors, exhibitors, attendees, and volunteers for your patience and understanding over the past few weeks while we negotiated the future of these two events with our partners.

Many of you have gotten in touch with us, wondering why it has taken so long to announce the cancellation of these two events. As you may know, Expo is the largest specialty coffee event in North America, and in order to make it happen, we engage in contracts with the venue and with over two dozen other partners, including hotels and other local businesses.

When it became clear that it would not be possible to find new dates for later in the year, our negotiations with these partners focused on ending these contracts without putting the SCA, a nonprofit association, in danger of legal retribution from these businesses, who are also experiencing similar difficulties amid this crisis.

We are heartbroken that we will not be able to see you in Portland this year, but we look forward to seeing you in New Orleans in 2021.

Stay safe and please remember to take a look at the various resources we have been compiling related to the impact of COVID-19 on the coffee industry by visiting sca.coffee/covid19.

Thank you,

Yannis Apostolopoulos

Chief Executive Officer

Specialty Coffee Association