BY DANIEL ALEMAYEHU
As the need of ensuring food security become mandatory for most nations of the world, the agriculture sector has turned out to be the focal point for most countries. Lately, the world has hit by waves of challenges caused by multiple factors. Due to the current war between Russia and Ukraine and the global pandemic, COVID-19, most nations, including Africa, have been experiencing economical hurdles. In this regard, the world has faced one of the highest inflation rates lately. And most nations are acting up on the queries of their citizens regarding lowering the inflation.
Particularly in Ethiopian context, the nation is blessed with inundated manmade and natural resources with superb weather. In different occasions, tangible results have been drawn when the government and the people of Ethiopia tried to use nation’s resources effectively. At this moment, the government of Ethiopia has introduced a number of ways to build the awareness and potentials of the people to exert the utmost effort towards fostering the economy and put their fingerprints on the overall progress of the nation.
In the past few years, Ethiopia is doing better regarding the agricultural sector. The government has been functioning tirelessly on advancing the quality and quantity of agricultural production and productivity across the country. Similarly, the nation has been registering better accomplishments on agricultural products including the production of wheat, avocado, coffee, and spices. In fact, the government has been implementing numerous policies and strategies to register such accomplishments.
Needless to say, coffee is one of the export commodities of Ethiopia from which the nation earns better income. It was reported that like the figure registered in wheat production in recent years, coffee has recorded the highest achievements in the past few seasons. It is the fact that coffee shares 30 percent of the nation’s total foreign exchange earnings. In recent times, the government has worked with stakeholders to increase the production of coffee and other agricultural products in terms of quality and quantity.
To this end, according to Ministry of Agriculture, the nation has secured a record 1.4 billion USD from coffee export in the 2021/22 fiscal year which is the highest of all time so far. Besides, in the year before, the nation had registered 906 million USD after exporting more than 240 thousand tons of coffee to the international markets. Regarding the scored figures, coffee export has helped the nation to increase its foreign earnings and the overall economic development.
It is important to remember that the government has been implementing numerous techniques to upgrade the lives of coffee farmers by organizing different events including ‘Cup of Excellence’ contest which focuses on bringing the best coffee quality to the market. This particular competition has brought better results regarding increasing the production and productivity of coffee along with uplifting the lives and income of farmers.
In 2021’s contest, for instance, it was reported that the best coffee that stood first on the competition was sold by 407 Dollar per kilogram. This means the price of a kilo of coffee became around 15 thousand Birr. Hence, the farmer earned over 5 million Birr for 9 bags of coffee locally known as Kesha. On this year’s competition, the best coffee was sold by 330 Dollar per kilogram which means 19 keshas of coffee was sold by 364,643 Dollar. Besides, five Ethiopian coffee samples got the Presidential award which is the highest prize.
Also, steps have been taken to add values to the export items so that the income will be increased. To this end, Ethiopia previously exported raw coffee to the world market; however, in recent times, some companies have been emerged to the coffee production bringing new ways of doing business. These companies are working to add values on the exported coffee by roasting, grounding, and packing products.
In this regard, Gezahegn Mamo, CEO of Wild Coffee Ethiopia previously disclosed, “The former government didn’t support investors and coffee companies to export value added coffee to the international market. Thus, it was one of hindrances that prohibited most investors to be involved in the coffee production.” In addition, in the present climate, the government is working on expanding its market destinations across the world which will create more opportunities for Ethiopian government and farmers to produce agricultural products with more quantity and better quality.
Due to those factors, the quality and quantity of coffee production and export are progressing better and better. According to multiple sources, Ethiopia is exporting better quality coffee to the world market by adding values. The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) has recently announced that the institution is under reforms to create favorable conditions for those who export agricultural products by making the system modern and electronic to make it easily accessible. In actual fact, every stakeholder is playing its part effectively so that the nation can score better results in exportation.
Lately, The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority announced that the nation has secured better income in exporting coffee. The authority stated that the country has earned over 615 million USD from coffee export to foreign markets over the last five months.
According to the Authority’s Deputy Director General and Head of Marketing Department, Shafi Umer, the nation has secured millions of Dollar, (615 million USD to be specific), from exporting coffee. To generate the aforementioned income, the country has exported more than 109 thousand tons of coffee to the world markets within the last five months. Comparing the figure with the similar period last year, this year’s earning has shown a 100 million Dollar difference.
The Deputy Director General further explained that the nation is working on expanding its market destination. To this end, the country has started to export its coffee products to the eastern world, mainly to China and Indonesia, this year. The expansion of destinations has been significantly contributing to nation’s income and generating foreign exchange. More to the point of exporting coffee to China and Indonesia, Ethiopia has been exporting its coffee products to other countries including Germany, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Australia and Japan.
Be that it may, the authority has been working tirelessly to upscale its export quantity in recent times. It is stated that in the current fiscal year, the authority has set a goal to generate around 2 billion USD by exporting more than 360 thousand tons of coffee products to the global markets. Figures show that the country is keeping on increasing its export quantity in the past few years. Specially, in the last four years, the country has registered better achievements. For instance, just last year, the nation exported 302 thousand tons of coffee to the world market and earned over 1.4 billion USD.
To wrap up the above ideas, the Government of Ethiopia has been implementing various mechanisms to upgrade the nation’s export potentials. Similarly, the incumbent is working with responsible stakeholders to take part in the progress. Regarding agriculture, the nation has been doing much better on the production of various crops and advanced its capacity to export. Nation’s coffee production will continue supporting the nation’s economy.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 30 DECEMBER 2022
