Specialty coffee association announced that the World of Coffee 2022 fair, originally scheduled in Warsaw, will take place on the same dates (23-25 June) but in Italy, in Milan. The formula of the awaited World Championships will not change: in any case it will consist of five competitions from the world of coffee: latte art, coffee in good spirits, cup tasters, cezve/ibrike and roasting.

In an official statement, the association explains that the decision to move the venue of the event to another city was "suffering but necessary", in the light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The conflict forced hundreds of thousands of people to seek refuge in many places in Warsaw, like the Ptak congress center, the venue initially planned for the World of Coffee.

“It will be the first time that Milan will host the World of Coffee and we are delighted to collaborate with MiCo, the Milan Convention Center, a modern location in the heart of the city - explains Yannis Apostolopoulos, managing director of the Specialty coffee association -. Right now our thoughts go to the Polish community welcoming refugees, choosing to allocate the Ptak Warsaw Expo to host the Ukrainian people".

"With the decision to move World of Coffee to Milan - adds Apostolopoulos - we want to avoid overloading the Warsaw community with this commitment, supporting the Chapters of Sca Poland and the Czech Republic, who continue to provide aid and support to those who fled the war. We look forward to come back to Warsaw in the future and we pledged to donate 100% of World of Coffee ticket sales revenue to Ukrainian coffee businesses and professionals”.

“We welcome the news of the next World of Coffee's location move with the regret and consternation that drive the reasons, which made impossible the hosting the event in Warsaw, the original venue of the event - underlines Alberto Polojac, National Coordinator of the association-. At the same time we are delighted as a Chapter to be able to host again one of the most important international industry events in our country".

"We are already at work - continues Polojac - with the organization to ensure a smooth and linear handover, certainly not easy two months before the start of the event. We are also delighted by the idea of hosting 5 world championships, which for two years they have been frozen waiting to decree new winners. In a complex historical moment like the current one, the best response we can give as a sector is to show ourselves cohesive and compact, supporting each other, with the dynamism and the courage that distinguishes everyone of us as coffee lovers”.