Skip to main content

Company to Invest in Coffee Farm and Roasting Facility in Ethiopia


US Company to Invest USD 50mln in Coffee Farm, Roasting Facility

By Hayal Alemayehu
Ethiopian Reporter

October 13, 2007

B&D Food Corporation, an American-based company, is set to invest USD 50 million in coffee farm and erection of a roasting facility in Ethiopia under its recently established subsidiary, BDFC Ethiopia Industry PLC.

The company has already secured 5,000 hectares of coffee farm in Jimma, Oromia region, on which it will be producing “high quality” Ethiopian coffee, company representative Benjamin Petel told The Reporter in a statement on Sunday. BDFC Ethiopia will also erect a coffee roasting facility around the coffee farm site, which had last week been handed over to it by the Oromia Investment Commission. Presently, the company is finalizing preparation to embark upon the project.

“BDFC Ethiopia intends to begin planting in the coming months and, in parallel, is working on building a processing factory on the plantation grounds,” Petel said. “B&D hopes to process the high quality Ethiopian beans in order to produce both roasted and instant coffee blends that are intended to be sold worldwide.”

The company will invest over USD 50 million in both the acquisition and plantation of the farm and erection of the roasting facility, Oromia Investment Commission Commissioner Alemu Sime told The Reporter. The company also plans to build resorts in the farm area, according to the commissioner. “Although the company’s representatives initially came to Ethiopia only to erect a roasting facility, they had, after visiting the site, also proposed to build recreation centers and launch a coffee plantation farm.”

B&D is currently examining several offers of companies bidding to assemble the roasting factory, according to Petel. “B&D’s current capabilities and expertise are both in the roasted and instant coffee fields. The company wishes to continue this line, by using the high quality Ethiopia coffee beans and therefore requires a state-of-the-art factory capable of producing the full range of coffees, like the one the company currently owns in Brazil,” Petel said.

Three years from plantation on the farm, the company’s projected export of roasted and instant coffee is 12,500 tonnes (on an annual basis), according to Petel. The vast majority of B&D Ethiopia’s produce is intended to be processed and sold as instant and roasted coffee.

“B&D Ethiopia will hopefully create job opportunities for several hundred people. It is currently examining these figures and hopes to determine its employee capacity soon.” Petel said.

B&D Ethiopia is destined to become a major exporter of roasted and instant coffee beans in Ethiopia, as there are barely companies engaged in that line of business, albeit the country being the birth place of coffee.

B&D Food Corp.’s management has 30 years of experience in the coffee business. Based in the US, the company operates in the food and beverage industry, specifically in coffee and related products. It has a coffee production facility in Brazil.

Comments

Post a Comment

Join the conversation

Popular posts from this blog

Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority Relaxes Coffee Export Restrictions

  Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority Relaxes Coffee Export Restrictions  Addis Fortune November 14, 2020 Coffee traders can now send all grades of coffee beans to the global market, in contrast to the previous law that allowed them only to export the top four grades of coffee, according to a new directive issued by the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority. Farmers and exporters can also directly ship the beans without going through the trading floors of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX). The new scheme allows fifth grade and under grade (UG) coffee beans, which up until now have only been supplied to the local market, to be exported. Coffee quality experts at respective regional offices of the Authority will determine the grade of the coffee. The Authority at its head office issues permits to the exporters every year, while regional offices are delegated to grant export permit to farmers who have at least two hectares of farmland. The Authority sets standard prices on a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate-hit Ethiopia shifts coffee uphill

Caffeine high? Climate-hit Ethiopia shifts coffee uphill Elias Gebreselassie Thomson Reuters Foundation June 3, 2018 HAMBELA, Ethiopia (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Few countries take coffee as seriously as Ethiopia - and that’s not only because it prides itself as being the source of the prized Arabica bean. But rising temperatures and worsening drought linked to climate change are now hitting production - and fixing that may require moving many Ethiopian coffee fields uphill, experts say. Aside from its cultural value, coffee is Ethiopia’s single largest source of export revenue, worth more than $860 million in the 2016-2017 production year. But coffee-growing areas in eastern Ethiopia have seen the average temperature climb 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) over the past three decades, according to the Environment, Climate Change and Coffee Forest Forum (ECCCFF), an Ethiopian non-governmental organization. That has caused stronger drought ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The saga of the Starbucks-Ethiopia affair

Note :   The most recent developments on Starbucks vs. Ethiopia are listed below: January 9, 2012:  Has trademarking doubled Ethiopian farmers' income?   January 5, 2012:   Starbucks to showcase use of a QR code to trace Organic Ethiopia Sidamo® Coffee   ========= "When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. When the same two elephants make love, the grass still suffers." - derivative of an old African saying Life, before and after the agreement, remains unaffected for farmer Gemede Robe, the icon of the Starbucks vs. Ethiopia dispute. He lives in the Borena zone of the Oromia region, one of the many coffee growing zones of the country. (Photo: Courtesy of Oxfam America) By Wondwossen Mezlekia May 31, 2010 The coffee trademark dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopia officially ended exactly three years ago. In June 2007, the giant coffee chain and the government of Ethiopia declared their agreement "to work together to license...
Read more