Coffee Exports Contribute Over 500 Million Dollars to Ethiopia

Addis Abeba, Jun 12 (Prensa Latina) Ethiopía produced some 449 thousand tons of coffee in the last nine months, of which at least 159 thousand 652 tons were exported to render revenues for 560 million dollars, official sources informed today.

 

According to the Ethiopian Authority of Development and Marketing of that bean, if it is true the country has great potential to grow coffee it has not benefited enough of this sector.

However, according to the entity, massive efforts are being made to improve productivity in all coffee plantation areas.

In that sense, the director general of the Authority, Sani Redi stressed they hope to become second world exporter, together with Brazil, in the near future.

In order to modernize the system, applying export control, improving ther Exchange of basic products and incentivate growers to use modern technologies are fundamental tasks to reach that objective.

‘With 5.47 million hectares of land favorable to be sowed, Ethiopia has plantations only in one million hectares, fact that notably hinders the benefits’, he said.

The European Union is the main Ethiopian market, representing the destination of 60 percent of coffee exports, while Germany, Saudi Arabia, United States, Japan and Belgium are among the main markets.