Addis Ababa, 7 September, 2015(WIC)-The Specialty Coffee Association of America’s (SCAA) annual event in Seattle, United States of America from is set to feature Ethiopian coffee from April 9-12, 2015.
Ethiopia will be featured as the “Portrait Country” during this 27th coffee industry trade show and conference. People in the coffee industry from over 75 countries will attend the SCAA annual event, according to Mr. Peter Vrooman, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Ethiopia, which has been assisting Ethiopia to make the most out of its coffee.
“…Ethiopia is taking a giant step forward as it takes center stage in in the international specialty coffee market as the official ‘portrait Country’ at the 2015 Specialty Coffee Association of America’s annual event. Ethiopia’s selection as the ‘Portrait Country’ is a major accomplishment and will help set the stage for next year’s World Coffee Conference and Exhibition that will be here in Addis Ababa,” he said.
Through different agencies and programs such as USAID and feed the Future program, the U.S. government has been supporting key players in Ethiopian coffee industry from farmers to associations and government institutions.
Led by Trade Ministry of Ethiopia, about 40 representatives, which are engaged in Ethiopian coffee industry, are expected to attend the event that will have 2,700 exhibitors from 75 countries and attracts 8,000 visitors.
SCAA is a non-profit organization engaged in promotion of specialty coffee for 30 years with over 9,000 members located in 40 countries. “This event will help us to promote the country in general to the world, beyond Ethiopia’s coffee,” said Assefa Mulugeta, Director General of Export Promotion at the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade, who stated that the country has recently developed a new strategy to make itself second producer of Coffee Arabica in the world next to Brazil.
From Left- Mr. Abdullah Bagerish, exporter of Ethiopian coffee and Board of Directors Chairman of African Fine Coffee Association; Mr. Hussein Agraw, President of Ethiopian Coffee Exporters’ Association and Mr. Peter Vrooman, Deputy Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Ethiopia listening to Mr. Assefa Mulugeta’s briefing on the new plan of Ethiopian government to boost coffee sector performance on April 2, 2015 in Addis Ababa – Photo- Andualem Sisay Gessesse
Although it is known as home for Arabica coffee with 6,000 known coffee varieties, currently Ethiopia’s coffee has less than 4% share in 130 million bags annual coffee transaction of the world.
The export earning of the country from coffee has been growing over the past years and reached some $841 million last year from $528 Million in 2009/10 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the industry that employees 15 million Ethiopians has not been able to compete with emerging coffee producers such as Vietnam, which stood at the top globally in terms of production volume. While some countries produce above 40 quintals of coffee per hectare, Ethiopia’s average production stands between 15 to 20 quintals per hectare.
In addition, the country exports 99% of its coffee still as green bean and haven’t made much progress in value addition due to major challenges such as technology, finance and market.
The new strategy of Ethiopian government aims to address the bottlenecks of production through increasing productivity per hectare and expanding farms as well as reducing wastage, according to Mr. Assefa.
Promoting specialty
Mr. Abdullah Bagerish, exporter of Ethiopian coffee and Board of Directors Chairman of African Fine Coffee Association suggests that improving quality of Ethiopian coffee can also help the country to earn more from its green bean export. “If we move to promotion and marketing of some of our specialty coffees, we can become price makers instead of price takers,” he said.
Echoing Mr. Abdullah, “The more the quality of the coffee, the more the negotiation power we have,” says Mr. Hussein Agraw, President of Ethiopian Coffee Exporters’ Association (newbusinessethiopia.com).