Poor Farmer

For Part I , click here For Part III , click here The Effects of ECX on Specialty Coffee Exporters and Buyers I think, the first year of trading coffee through ECX was marred by problems and confusion. While the efforts made by ECX to take on a crop of global importance shortly after its launch is admirable, the strategies it went by to integrate the trade were far from being flawless. From the outset, ECX declared that it aims at creating a national standard commodity coffee classification system; it eliminated direct trade and traceability; and enticed the government to controlling the value chain from farm gate to the border. These changes have had remarkable effects on coffee exporters, buyers, growers, and the coffee sector at large. I. Homogeneous National Coffee Brand For a country with millions of poor people, the temptation of utilizing the high paying fewer coffee brands to drive sales and increase the value of the country's overall coffee production is high. That ve...

Wide Angle Profiles One Woman’s Mission to End Hunger in Her Famine-Plagued Country Through Ethiopia’s First Commodities Exchange, July 22 on PBS Anchor Aaron Brown Reports from East Africa to Document the Efforts of Ethiopian Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin in the Market Maker ------- For my assessment of the ECX and readers' comments, click HERE  - Wondwossen ------- BUSINESS WIRE July 14, 2009 NEW YORK--Twenty-five years after Ethiopia’s famine captured the attention of the world, one startling fact prevails: while nearly one million people starved to death mainly in the north of the country, the south had a food surplus. The problem, says former World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin, is that the country lacked the economic mechanism to smoothly move commodities from one part of the country to another. Gabre-Madhin, a Cornell undergraduate at the time, saw clearly that the devastating famine was not a result of a lack of food but lack of food distribution. Haunted by the skelet...

For Part II, click HERE For Part II, click HERE In the past few weeks, too many readers asked me to share my views on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and wanted to know what I think about its effects on the Ethiopian coffee sector in general, and the Specialty coffee industry in particular. I was also asked similar questions by producers of the PBS Wide Angle program that released this documentary program featuring Eleni Gebre-Medhin, founder of the ECX. While I continue to respond to as many of your emails as I can, I also thought it might be useful to post my comments here on the blog for everyone else to see. So, in the coming couple of days, I will post my views on the most frequently asked questions: What's your view on the ECX in general; What do you think are the effect of trading through the ECX on specialty coffee exporters and buyers; Is ECX good for coffee growers? Today, I share my views on the ECX in general as an introduction and to clarify my stance before...

Promised to return rest of the money to the exporters By Muluken Yewondwossen Capital July 20, 2009 The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has paid off the loans taken out by six banned coffee exporters. The re-payment of loans comes after the ministry exported beans seized off the major exporters, who were alleged to have been hoarding the commodity, through the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise and other private exporters. Three weeks ago, MoARD called the exporters and suppliers to confirm their bank account numbers for the transfer of the money, after it decided to clear bank loans that were taken to buy about 18, 000 tons of the subsequently confiscated beans from the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and other local markets. In March this year, after the Government made the hoarding accusation, it seized and sold the coffee at the exchange market through selected intermediary members. The state-owned member of ECX, the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise began to particip...