Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU) announced that it is working aggressively to boost its export volume and income via implementing proper long and short term coffee sector development mechanisms and marketing strategies.
In an exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU) Deputy General Manager Andualem Shiferaw said that the country has greater potential to attract more global coffee
market. International coffee traders accord a greater place for Ethiopian natural coffee, he added.
As to him, the union played a promising role in the Ethiopian coffee export from 2009 up to 2016 during which it generated a record foreign currency.
In 2014, the union generated 18,263,000 USD from coffee export to the US, Japan, Germany, South Korea, among others.
Seventy percent of the union’s coffee product is exported to USA, he indicated.
“The union earned 12.8 million in 2014/15, 10.7 million in 2016/17 and 7.3 million in 2018/19 USD. But, owing to different problems the union’s total export earning plumeted to 5, 545,000 USD during the past Ethiopian budget year [2018/19]”, he said
According to him, the major causes to the decrease in the export earnings are the 2009 E.C (2018) unrest around the union’s major coffee source— Gedoe— and the
imprisonment of the union’s core leaders for 9 and half months following the unrest.
Furthermore, the ambitious plan of the government to generate more foreign exchange from the sector by announcing coffee specialty in 2017 was the other formidable challenge that slackened the country’s coffee export. The 2017 proclamation on coffee specialization has hatched numerous illegal coffee business actors from all corners of the country whose sole target is earning foreign currency in the short-cut rather than meeting customers satisfaction via making sustainable import-export trading partners, he underlined.
After the coming to in to force of the proclamation the industry suffered setbacks as the actors are striving to abuse the industry through trading coffee with cheaper price and also trying to engage as importing coffee from abroad and re-exporting it again, he stressed.
“The country is home to the world’s best flavor coffee. The international coffee market and public coffee consumption is also growing
steadily. Having this in mind Ethiopia should become a major beneficiary from the coffee industry through implementing timely coffee development mechanisms and sustainable coffee product marketing strategies,” he noted.
More than 1,000 metric tons coffee is reserved in the union’s warehouse.
Established in 1999, YCFCU has been exporting coffee to the international market since 2002, according to him.
“The union included 37,000 coffee grower farmers, 28 cooperatives and other direct participants in the day-to-day activities of the union. The union highly values natural produce with natural composts and traditional fertilizers. Thus, the naturalness and flavor of Yirgachefe coffee serve an allurement to attract more attention from the global coffee market”, he underscored.
The union was aspiring to double and generate plus to 36 million USD by 2020 from coffee export, he explained.
YCFCU will unstintingly work in creating sustainable coffee market chain through rendering coffee growers fair beneficiaries and keeping the country’s coffee international demand along with actively participating in the global coffee investment, he emphasized.
Adding-value to Ethiopia’s coffee is crucial as the country’s coffee is highly demanded in the international market, he recommended.
Currently, more than 25 million citizens are directly or indirectly benefiting from the sector.
Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (YCFCU) Planning and Budget Divison Head Alelign Tiba for his part said that the union is undertaking various measures to ensure the advantage of coffee-grower farmers from the sector. Discussing with Yirgachefe coffee importing country customer, leading the sector with sector legal practitioners and exporting pure natural coffee are the main solutions to the current sector bottlenecks, he added.
As to him, properly storing, value-adding and exporting Ethiopia’s coffee during this time is important to outshine in the global coffee market..
The Ethiopian Herald July 21/2019
BY TEWODROS KASSA
