Poor Farmer

By Asrat Seyoum The Reporter December 17, 2011 Photo: Courtesy of The Reporter On April 24, 2008 Bob Geldof, the renowned ex-rock star, who had strong ties to the country on account of rallying international help to the great Ethiopian famine of the 1984, kicked off the first modern commodity exchange market in the country. The irony that Geldof, the very person who campaigned to feed millions, ringing the bell to commence a modern grain market in Ethiopia apparent, hopes for Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) to redefine the country’s agricultural commodities market landscape was very high. And ECX’s first pick to start its operation was the oldest and the most prominent cash-cow in the economy: coffee. The move from the old coffee board and auction system to the new anonymous trading system was never easy to say the least. Nevertheless, close to three years  on ECX floor, the bumpy performance cannot be attributed to adjusting to a system alone; both the...

By Birhanu Fikade The Reporter December 17, 2011 The Ministry of Trade (MoT) pulled back the latest coffee directive, which ordered all coffee shipments from the country to be in loose container packaging format, after its month long tenure in the sector. Following the enactment of the directive through a letter written to the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association (ECEA) by the minister of state, Yacob Yala, the coffee sector appeared in a big shock and the export revenue was declared to be in a danger zone. On the other hand, international coffee importers as well have voiced their opposition to the authorities saying that the measure will be a business suicide for the sector.  However, the ministry appeared to be insistent about the loose container shipment mechanism in the coffee export sector until late this week. Previous meeting with the minister of state were dispersed without any change to the new rule and some of the exporters continued business as usual, ...