Coffee in Retrospect: "Ethiopian Coffee to Aid Trade of Italy"

Fifty per cent of Ethiopia's coffee is grown in the Jimma region. The finest and most  aromatic quality amounting to 10 per cent of the total production is grown around Harrar. Prior to the Italian conquest of Ethiopia the greater part of this coffee was exported to the United States and to the northern nations of Europe. but since the African campaign more than 10,000,000 pounds of Ethiopian coffee have been sold on the Italian market. Italy imports its coffee principally from Brazil, paying for it by an exchange of national products. A smaller quantity also is imported from Arabia.

COFFEE TO AID TRADE OF ITALY

Painesville Telegraph

Apr 2, 1938

ROME - April 2. - A special commission of agricultural experts has presented to Premier Benito Mussolini an exhaustive report on the possibilities of coffee production in the empire.

The commission was delegated by Il Duce to study the possibility of increasing the production of coffee in Ethiopia. Italians drink the equivalent of 90,000,000 pounds of coffee a year. Ethiopia has an annual estimated output of 70,000,000 pounds, of which 13,000,000 pounds are consumed by the local population.

Fifty per cent of Ethiopia's coffee is grown in the Jimma region. The finest and most  aromatic quality amounting to 10 per cent of the total production is grown around Harrar.

Export Flow Reduced

Prior to the Italian conquest of Ethiopia the greater part of this coffee was exported to the United States and to the northern nations of Europe. but since the African campaign more than 10,000,000 pounds of Ethiopian coffee have been sold on the Italian market.

Italy imports its coffee principally from Brazil, paying for it by an exchange of national products. A smaller quantity also is imported from Arabia.

Some usually well-informed quarters believe that Mussolini intends to increase coffee production in Ethiopia, which now produces only two-thirds of Italy's annual consumption and no longer imports it from Brazil.

May Bring Gold To Italy

Other business-men, however believe that Mussolini intends to increase the production of coffee in the empire but to continue its sale on world markets and continue to import it for Italian coffee drinkers from Brazil. This second hypothesis is believed to be the likelier of the two, considering the heavy tolls of the Suez Canal through which all ships from East Africa must pass. Also by selling Ethiopian coffee to foreign markets Mussolini would obtain muchly needed gold and thus strengthen the Bank of Italy's reserves as well as offsetting the nation's unfavorable trade balance.

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Ed's Note: Coffee in Retrospect is a weekly column prepared by Coffee Monitor and Poor Farmer blog to provide context for the current global coffee trade by republishing news articles from the past. In this column, we intend to reprint archived prints by converting images into electronic file formats with careful conformity to originals and, whenever applicable and possible, we provide links to the sources of the information. Meanwhile, responsibility for the contents lies solely with the authors and the views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect our opinions.