Coffee: Ethiopia’s $1 billion industry?

Mulatu Teshome, the President of Ethiopia, has announced that the coffee industry in the country must continue to increase their export revenues in the next couple of years.

A target of $1 billion has been set.

The coffee sector in Ethiopia has been in rude health recently and despite some significant gains, President Teshome has continued to ramp up the pressure by proverbially throwing down the gauntlet.

It is hoped that this words eventually tip production levels over 200,000 tonnes.

Official statistics show that the amount of coffee exported for the 2013-14 season were around 6,000 tons lower than the amount recorded in 2010-11. However due to economic reasons and other extenuating factors, the amount of money that has been brought in has actually increased.

Around 191,000 tonnes of coffee was exported this year.

“We must break this one time export income record by supplying more quality to the global market,” Teshome announced at the 3^rd International Ethiopian Coffee Conference.

But is this an achievable target?

The answer, probably, is yes.

Modernisation has been crucial to the growth of the industry in Ethiopia, but it transpires that only five percent of the East African country’s coffee production is actually grown on plantations that are solely dedicated to coffee production.

In this respect there is room for massive improvement.

“Research shows that 10% of Ethiopia’s production comes from the age old practice of gathering wild coffee beans in forests [whilst] 50% is produced from small plots as a secondary crop,” Teshome said.

Officials have hinted that the United States is keen to help the country’s development and may provide some investment in the near future.

Mulatu Teshome, the President of Ethiopia, has announced that the coffee industry in the country must continue to increase their export revenues in the next couple of years.

A target of $1 billion has been set.

The coffee sector in Ethiopia has been in rude health recently and despite some significant gains, President Teshome has continued to ramp up the pressure by throwing down this inflated gauntlet.

It is hoped that this words eventually tip production levels over 200,000 tonnes.

Official statistics show that the amount of coffee exported for the 2013-14 season were around 6,000 tons lower than the amount recorded in 2010-11. However due to economic reasons and other extenuating factors, the amount of money that has been brought in has actually increased.

Around 191,000 tonnes of coffee was exported this year.

“We must break this one time export income record by supplying more quality to the global market,” Teshome announced at the 3^rd International Ethiopian Coffee Conference.

But is this an achievable target?

The answer, probably, is yes.

Modernisation has been crucial to the growth of the industry in Ethiopia, but it transpires that only five percent of the East African country’s coffee production is actually grown on plantations that are solely dedicated to coffee production.

In this respect there is room for massive improvement.

Officials have hinted that the United States is keen to help the country’s development and may provide some investment in the near future.