ADDIS ABABA — The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority disclosed that the country earned over 39 million USD from coffee export until last November.
Authority Public Relation Expert Fisum Mengesha told The Ethiopian Herald that the country earned the stated sum by exporting over 13,000 tons of coffee. The figure is respectively 76.3 and 51 percent of the plan and income of coffee export in the year under review
“The season [November] is the highest coffee harvesting period in the Ethiopian crop season, said Fistum adding that the price fluctuation of coffee in global market hinders the country from getting better results from the cash crop.
The expert advised Ethiopian coffee farmers to make meaningful participation in coffee unions to enhance their beneficiary from the sector.
Authority Spices Extension Directorate Representative Alemayehu Tadesse said on his part that coffee has remained the leading commodity in Ethiopia’s export performance while supporting the lives of over 5.2 million farmers across the country. Roughly, 25-30 million people in Ethiopia are participated in coffee production directly and indirectly.
According to Alemayehu, Ethiopia pans to cover over 1.3 million hectares of land by coffee whilst setting target to produce over 978,000 tons of coffee. The average yield of coffee in Ethiopia is 7 tons per hectare.
He said that the fluctuation of the demand of coffee in international market coupled with the presence of numerous middle men in coffee market chain as well as issues in farming technologies and poor handling are the main factors that impede Ethiopian coffee growers from getting desirable outcomes from their labor. Absence of mechanism that allows the framers to directly involve in coffee exports is also a factor to the insufficient outcome from hard toil.
So as to overcome the situation and maximize their benefits, farmers should exert efforts to export value added commodities that would in turn enhance the competitiveness of Ethiopia’s coffee export in global market and increase revenues.
Ethiopia has numerous the coffee grower cooperative unions across the country, Alemayehu said, adding that the farmers should formulate the experience leading coffee exporting countries including Brazil and Colombia to provide quality coffee to global markets.
Implementing modern coffee extension services and technologies, giving focus to value addition as well as exchanging global experiences would have a paramount importance to enhance the competitiveness of Ethiopia’s coffee exports in international markets, he noted.
Herald December 15/2018
BY MESERET BEHAILU & HIZKEL HAILU
