The European Union (EU) has provided a € 15 million support to improve the competitiveness of Ethiopia’s coffee sector.
In a press conference issued on Friday, State Minister of Agriculture, Sani Redi, said EU’s funding would contribute a lot in improving coffee productivity through addressing the challenges facing the sector.
It would also help to export value added coffee from 28 coffee growing districts.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture attache in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is expected to export a record-high 240,000 metric tons of coffee in 2019/20.
Even though Ethiopia has improved practices and made important progress all along its coffee value chain, its coffee farmers lag behind. Improved coffee plant varieties remain out of reach for too many farmers, the adoption of better processing techniques has been slow, and the rising potential for disease and weather shocks due to climate change is leaving farmers increasingly vulnerable.
Coffee is one of the most important globally traded agricultural commodities, with consumption occurring mostly in developed countries and production in developing ones. Ethiopia is the biggest exporter of coffee in Africa, and coffee accounts for 22 percent of the country’s commodity exports. In global markets, Ethiopia’s Arabica coffee is valued for its unique taste. Ninety five percent of the country’s coffee is cultivated by an estimated 4 million primarily smallholder, often poor, farming households.
Yet despite its leading position in Africa and the positive changes made in the coffee trade in the last decade, the Ethiopian coffee sector is underperforming, according to recent research by the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (EDRI).
Ethiopian yields are reportedly slightly higher than those of Kenya and Rwanda, but lower than Uganda’s—and only one half to one third the size of major Latin American producers’. Ethiopian farmers, meanwhile, receive a smaller share of export prices compared to most other countries.
MG/abj/APA