BEIJING, People’s Republic of China — Ethiopian Embassy in Beijing fostered a curtain-raiser call upon Chinese coffee community to explore coffee export and value-adding processing in Ethiopia at “The 2nd China (Pu’er) International Specialty Coffee Expo” that took place from March 12 – 17, 2019 Pu’er city which is considered as “The Coffee Capital” of China.
The Expo was co-hosted by the circulation Industry promotion Center of Ministry of Commerce of #China and Yunna Province International Coffee Exchange (YICE) with the aim of fostering commercial partnership among crucial stakeholders of the global Industry.
The delegation from the embassy shared the experience of Ethiopia’s organic, high quality and varieties of coffee that are consistently embedded in the identity of its people to attendees of the official opening of the Expo. It was highlighted that, #Ethiopia, the ancestral home of the much desirable Arabica varieties, is well-positioned to easily penetrate a specialty coffee market in china. The Expo focused on the rapidly growing coffee market in China as the country is quickly tending to join the league of largest Coffee-consuming countries with a tectonic shift towards a more upscale coffee drinking culture.
The Forum recalled that China presented a new Trade Facilitation Initiative under the Forum on China #Africa Cooperation (#FOCAC) in its commendable bid to expand the spectrum of imports from Africa, among which value-added coffee is expected to hold promising potential for Ethiopia’s export growth. The Embassy delegation further elaborated the permanent endeavors being invested by the government of Ethiopia to improve the traceability of coffee beans and transparency on business returns to coffee growers, and this has a meaningful contribution for the transformation of the global specialty market.
It is reported that the Expo brought together more than 1000 attendees hailing from different corners of the world, including coffee industry experts, producers, roasters, café owners, baristas, importers, exporters, industry associations, and government officials.
At the sideline of the Expo, the Embassy delegation met with the municipal leadership of the People’s Government of Pu’re city and the Yunnan International Coffee Exchange (YICE) and had a successful discussion on the way forward for cooperation in coffee industry spheres