ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – The 15th African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition wraps up today at the Millennium Hall, Addis Ababa. The conference is organized by African Fine Coffee Association under the theme: ‘Reshaping the African Coffee Industry for Productivity & Investment’.
Opening the Conference, President Dr. Mulatu Teshome noted that the 15th African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition will create a good opportunity to promote Ethiopia’s coffee as it comes at a time when Ethiopian coffee growers are harvesting coffee beans.
Speaking about benefits of the conference, President Mulatu stated that such a platform has significant contribution towards generating the revenues which Ethiopia has targeted from coffee.
Coffee accounts 26 percent of Ethiopia’s total export earnings. The country envisaged earning over 2 billion US dollars from the export of 302, 560 tons in the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP-II).
The Conference brings over more than 2000 regional and international coffee roasters, traders, producers, professionals and connoisseurs from countries including Malawi, Kenya South Africa Tanzania, Congo, Zimbabwe, and Burundi and visitors all over the world.
The three days African Fine Coffee Conference & Exhibition is the continent’s largest coffee trade platform that included panel discussions, exhibitions about specialty coffees, and various deliberations that will enhance the sector in Africa and its competitiveness in the global market.
The Organizer Association (AFCA) is a regional non profit, non political, member-driven association representing coffee sectors in 11 member countries namely Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.