By Muluken Yewondwossen
August 5, 2013
A new government body, ‘Coffee
Authority’, is under formation, Capital learned. For over half a century,
Ethiopia’s major foreign currency income was backed by coffee export, although
the sector has been going through various up and downs. To tackle the problems
both in marketing and production, the government has now decided once again to
form a self-governing entity for the sector.
The new directive that is expected
to be endorsed shortly by the Council of Ministers would allow the formation of
the Coffee Authority, making the coffee sector an independent division. It is
now run under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA).
According to sources, the new
authority shall be responsible for the coffee sector development, marketing and
researches to boost plantation as well as quality production.
Coffee, before being administered
under the agriculture ministry, used to be governed through the Coffee and Tea
Authority, an entity that used to be responsible for the development of the
sector for several years. The latter carried out the nursery of coffee plant
and distribution for farmers. It also engaged in developing selected seeds to
boost the sector’s development.
The Coffee and Tea Authority was
also responsible to monitor the production and exportation of all coffees
through an auction system. It was later replaced by the Ethiopian Commodity
Exchange, which commenced coffee trading in 2008.
The first such body responsible for
coffee was the National Coffee Board of Ethiopia (NCBE) that pioneered coffee
certification when established in 1957. The NCBE’s aims were to control and coordinate
producers’ traders and exporters’ interests and to improve the quality of
Ethiopian coffee.
The sector experts said that the
formation of an independent office for coffee is necessary to ensure the
sector’s development. They said that the sector has been affected since it was
attached to the MoA.
“The coffee sector needs a very
close attention and the formation of the new entity will be a good advantage to
continue with its development,” experts said.
Even though the Ethiopian coffee
bean has good flavour with different varieties, it has not been able to fetch
the proper premium on the international market.
Various studies indicate that
Ethiopia is the primary centre of origin and genetic diversity of the Arabica
coffee plant.
The labour-intensive tree crop also
provides much employment in rural areas and is the means of livelihood for over
25 million people in Ethiopia. It also retains the major share of the GDP. The
total amount of coffee that is exported in the past fiscal year is 199,104 tons
securing USD 746 million, representing the leading revenue from exports in the
past year for instance,