Ethiopia Coffee Industry To Generate 45% Growth

Jan 10, 2016

Shimelis Arega, Team Leader, Public Relations and Communications, Ethiopia Trade Ministry said that the country’s coffee export is set to increase 45 per cent due to government incentives and support.

Coffee exports totaled 184,000 tons in 2014, and were worth $780 million, he said.

“And coffee exports will increase 45 per cent to over 260,000 tons this year. Incentives will help achieve this goal, and they will include marketing linkage, loans for coffee exporters and processors, and the promotion of the Arabica coffee that the country exports at trade shows abroad,” he said.

According to ministry figures, Coffee exports account for nearly 30 per cent of the country’s hard-currency earnings.

“We are helping companies to expand coffee farms and to modernize processing,” Arega added.

He said the government will also take steps to crack down on the illegal coffee trade.

Arega pointed out that “The ministry is training smallholder coffee farmers in improved harvesting, storage and preservation. These techniques add value to the coffee which then earns more in export sales.”

The largest export destinations are Germany and Saudi Arabia.

“Ethiopian exporters have 18 per cent of the German market, and 16 per cent of the Saudi Arabian market,” Arega said.

On his part, the Association General Manager, Yilma Gebrekidan said that the Ethiopian Coffee Growers and Exporters Association members have holdings covering over 80,000 hectares (800,000,000 square meters).

“The association has 200 members, and each owns 30 hectares of coffee farms. They exported 14,000 tons of coffee worth $70 million in 2014,” Gebrekidan said.

He said that association planned to increase the value of its exports to well over $ 100 million in the coming years, with government support as part of the Second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTPII), which is a five year economic plan beginning 2016.

The association is expanding farms, using promotions, and is helped by incentives including tax exemptions for investors who import goods for coffee processing.

Generally, the association said the area covered by coffee farms in Ethiopia is about 800,000 hectares (8,000,000,000 square meters) of land with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons. Coffee farms account for 25 per cent of the workforce in Ethiopia.

Source: Footprint to Africa