Poor Farmer

Wondwossen's Note :   Apparently, this unclassified cable, labeled April 9, 2009, was released on the same day I published my first assessment of the situation in Ethiopia's coffee sector: " Coffee Brews Feud, Drowns Out Voices ".  Since then, I have published multiple commentaries on the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) and the state of the coffee sector. Those commentaries, including updates and news articles from other sources, can be accessed through the standalone page dedicated in this blog and named " ECX Watch ". This cable also puts to rest the points of contention addressed in " Straightening out coffee facts for the record ", which was a rebuttal of the arguments of Dr. Eleni Gabre-Madhin, CEO of the ECX. The contents of the cable can be summarized in the following broad categories: 1.      The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) passed the coffee law in order to control the domestic coffee sector 2.      ECX had...

* Central America, African, Asian origins sell as futures rise * Price differentials cut in several origins * Brazil and Colombia still hold out, prices firm Reuters January 13, 2012 HAMBURG, Jan 13 (Reuters) - A sudden surge in coffee futures this week prompted more selling by origin producers in Europe's cash coffee market but Brazil and Colombian exporters were unwilling to deal, traders said on Friday. "Physical coffee buying has been as difficult as hanging up wallpaper with one hand in recent weeks, with a lot of producer dissatisfaction about low futures," one cash dealer said. "But the sudden jump in futures generated a lot more willingness to sell in Central America, East Africa and Asia." New York ICE arabica coffee futures on ICE rose to an eight-week high this week on sudden short covering. "Several origins cut differentials to quickly cash in on the rising futures," another trader said. "There was outside...