Poor Farmer

Quantity of coffee exports decreased by December 2009 to 2,935 metric tonnes from a high of 7,252.1 metric tonnes earlier in May of the same year. (Photo: Joseph Kanyi/ Courtesy of Business Daily) By James Waithaka Business Daily June 11 2010 A plan to boost quality control in coffee production promises to strengthen the competitiveness of the crop and increase farmers’ earnings. The European Union and Kenya-based DCDM are jointly funding a certification project aimed at increasing output and boost earnings by 25 per cent. The project seeks to transform the way coffee is produced and marketed in its member countries to reach leading buyers. Farmers in coffee producing countries in eastern Africa will be handed a lifeline through the five-year initiative being implemented under the Common Fund Commodities (CFC) by the Eastern Africa Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA). Diminishing acreage About Sh370 million has been channelled to the verification and certification project...

- ECX director hints the problem is temporary By Hayal Alemayehu The Reporter June 05, 2010 Major coffee traders who supply the beans to the local market complain that they could not get the full amount of coffee they buy at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouses while the VAT payment for the missing stock is not returned to them in time. “When we buy, say, a 100 quintal of coffee, we end up getting 80 or 90 quintals,” said a coffee trader on condition of anonymity because the person is not entitled to give information to the press. “We do not only fail to receive the full amount of the stock we buy but also suffer from the fact that we are not getting back the VAT payment for the missing stock in time, which will hurt our business.” Owing to such challenges, scores coffee traders who supply the local market are entering the contraband market, according to some of traders at the ECX. Due to warehouse moisture, the coffee stored at the warehouses will naturally f...

By Muluken Yewondwossen Capital Ethiopia May 29, 2010 (VOLUME 12 NO. 597) Some of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange’s (ECX) trading members have complained about the trading system and other facilities of the new system, but ECX officials have rejected the complaints. Some of the coffee traders Capital interviewed said from time to time the exchange is failing in terms of the trading system, quality grading, warehousing facility and payment resettlement. The traders also blamed the ECX for suspending the establishment of an association that was initially given the green light by the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange Authority, which has a mandate to give a right to form trade associations and control the trading activities. The traders, who demanded anonymity, said the National Exchange Actors Association (NEAA) formed by members of the ECX in August last year was given six months to form the association, call a general assembly and to elect board members, but the association was su...