A Record Is Not Enough Ethiopia's coffee windfall, and what reached the farm gate By Wondwossen Mezlekia Part 1 of a five-part series. Figures current through May 2026. I started writing about Ethiopian coffee when the Commodity Exchange was still an argument, before it became a building, a trading floor, and finally a system that touched nearly every coffee farmer in the country. I have kept at it, on and off, for the better part of twenty years. This government came to office promising reform, transparency, prosperity, and a different economic future. Nearly a decade later, it has a record coffee year to point to. The number is real. What it proves is another matter. I am not returning to settle that question with a slogan. I am returning to count the record: what produced it, who gained from it, what it cost, and what reached the farm gate. The question is not whether Ethiopia exported more coffee, or whether coffee earned more foreign currency. It did. The questio...