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Long queue for coffee inspection leaves drivers frustrated at Bonga ECX center

Note from Wondwossen: This report appears to initially imply that the departure of the coffee auction center's (ECX) former CEO has something got to do with one of the major problems that the coffee chain is facing, namely inadequate coffee inspection logistics, but failed to explain the connection. In fact, the problem is a systemic issue that has been affecting the sector and cost business operators dearly from day one. Ironically, the problem could easily be minimized by distributing portable laboratory equipment to - and educating - transporters and suppliers of the impacts of higher moisture levels in green coffee bags, and by devising a process that will prevent the corrupt process at ECX centers where some suppliers apparently manage to sneak in stocks of coffees with a higher than acceptable moisture level.

 The average cost of an SCAA approved capacitance metering is $300, which is affordable by ECX and worth the investment considering the inconvenience and cost incurred by transporters and suppliers due to such a recurring problem. Despite, the problem continues to be a major obstacle to increasing the much needed foreign exchange and agricultural and rural development in the country.
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By Yonas Abiye
The Ethiopian Reporter

November 17, 2012

After the founding CEO of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX), Elene Gebremedhin (Ph.D.), left the Exchange, complaints are coming from truck drivers who deliver coffee to the coffee inspection and quality assurance center of Bonga because of long queues, congestion and incapacitated service.

This week The Reporter visited the ECX office in Bonga and witnessed hundreds of trucks loaded with coffee while waiting in long queues to get their coffee quality inspected and receive assurance letter. 

Frustrated drivers told The Reporter that they are forced to wait for up to 20 days at the gate of the inspection center and they were incurring extra cost. 

“They do not even explain anything. We rather face many problems as we are wasting valuable time”, an Isuzu truck driver, who requested anonymity, told The Reporter. 

“It is five days since I have been here and there are around 27 trucks that arrived here before me. Sometimes they say there is system failure and sometimes they say that our coffee is not dried enough to pass the inspection,” another frustrated driver said while hopelessly rubbing his truck’s body . 

According to the drivers and local parking attendants, the center is too small to entertain and to accommodate the number of trucks. Its daily capacity can not accommodate more than 15 trucks.

Se’are Mahtem, an attendant for Wondimamachoch Parking Service, said that he registered only forty-one trucks’ plate numbers which he believed would get service in the next two days. “It’s also difficult for us too. The problem can only be  solved by the ECX.

Both the parking attendants as well as drivers agree that the problem is “poor coordination” of the ECX and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA). 

“This center usually forces some trucks to stay for more days if the coffee is not dried. But the MoA should at first make sure whether the coffee is dried enough when it is collected. If it can do so, there would not be such congestion at this inspection center. This would also enable us not to waste our time,” the anonymous driver said. 

ECX's CEO Anteneh Assefa, on his part, said that the moisture content of the coffee delivered to the inspection center is the reason that made drivers to stay long. But he refutes the accusation of having a system problem.

"The moisture content of the coffee must not exceeds from 11 to 12 percent. But most of the coffee delivered to the Bonga center is more than the standard. This is because of the place where the coffee is collected which has more than nine months of rain. So, many trucks may be forced to stay for more days until their coffee gets dried. But we have no problem of efficiency'” Anteneh told The Reporter.

Anteneh also confirmed that there might be a problem from the very place where the coffee is collected. To curb this problem we always work together with the Ministry of Agriculture.

The problem is mostly associated with the truck owners and the drivers to ensure the dryness of the the coffee before they come to our center.
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