ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority said coffee export showed an increment of 21.78 percent , which is up from the past fiscal year.
Shafi Umer, Deputy Director of the Authority and Marketing Head, told The Ethiopian Herald that 137417.28 tons of green coffee was exported from July to Feb of 2017/18 and the Nation has been able to generate 481.86 million USD.
The difference in size has reached 24,583.43 tons and 47.57 million USD in terms of income, noted Shafi. According to him, several measures that has been taken by the Authority following the reform of 2016 were the key behind this export performance.
Fair prices for the growers
The Authority has been creating different opportunities for farmers, suppliers, exporters and industries to benefit from direct market chain. “We have been able to avoid the usual farmer to broker market chain and the farmers would get the fair price for their products,” he added.
This also reduced unnecessary expenditure during the long transaction process. The farmers are provided with better options to sell the products directly to the industries, suppliers and even they can export by their own selves as long as they fulfill the criteria.
However, the export has been facing challenges due to the price reduction of coffee in the international market. As a result, the Authority has to come up with some strategic actions. Shafi said In order to alleviate such problems three major strategic plans are underway.
“These are exporting ample size tons of coffee, creating strong relationship with companies who are able to buy with better price and identifying and taking serious measures on illegal exporters who sell the coffee with less than a price it deserves,” he underscored.
The Authority is also aspiring to maximize product and productivity working in cooperation with the government by assigning extension services in to kebele level, increasing size of coffee tons and making Ethiopian coffee to sell in a better price.
