Poor Farmer

SCAA co-hosts first-ever Specialty coffee & tea convention for the Middle East International Conference and Exhibition Set for Dubai, the Gateway to the Middle East’s Coffee and Tea Industry Press Release August 12, 2009 The first-ever Specialty Coffee & Tea Convention for the Middle East takes place Nov. 10 – 12, 2009 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The conference is co-organized by the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the world’s largest coffee trade association, and International Conferences & Exhibitions LLC, one of the Middle East’s pioneering and well respected convention management firms. The Specialty Coffee & Tea Convention is expected to draw the largest gathering of coffee and tea traders from the Middle East and other international markets. The program features in-depth educational lectures and workshops, a focused coffee and tea exhibition, and a wide range of opportunities for networking, business sourcing and market intelligence. The three-d...

A worker selects arabica coffee beans at Conquista farm in Alfenas in Brazil, July 7, 2008. Courtesy: REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker By Sharon Lindores Reuters August 13, 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - Total global coffee output in 2009/10 is forecast to stand at around 127 million bags, against 127.288 million in 2008/09, the International Coffee Organization (ICO) said in its latest monthly report on Thursday. "There has been good export performance by Brazil, and Vietnam, while Colombian availability has continued to be below average due to weather conditions," the report said. "Some reduction in exports has also been observed from Africa and Central America." The arabica crop for 2009/10 in Brazil is 70 percent harvested and is expected to produce 39.1 million bags, down from 35.5 million bags in the previous year. This is due to the biennial cycle. The estimated production of robustas in Brazil for 2009/10 rose to 10.8 million bags from 10.5 million bags in the previous year,...

Part I Part II Is ECX Good for Coffee Growers? The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established with an ambitious goal of eliminating food shortages and hunger in Ethiopia by creating an efficient marketing system for agricultural commodities. Barely two months after its launch, the highly praised exchange platform found itself caught in the midst of the complex global coffee trade, an undertaking that is entirely different and farther from its original vision of "revolutionizing" the inefficient domestic commodity market. In August 2008, the government enacted a new law that forces the trading of all of the country's coffees through ECX and ECX welcomed the decision. Since then, the government confiscated stocks of coffee from exporters and revoked licenses, filled in the vacuum with the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE), and sold Specialty coffees at commodity grade coffee prices. Following its first rough encounter, ECX is now engaged in talks with Spec...

For Part I , click here For Part III , click here The Effects of ECX on Specialty Coffee Exporters and Buyers I think, the first year of trading coffee through ECX was marred by problems and confusion. While the efforts made by ECX to take on a crop of global importance shortly after its launch is admirable, the strategies it went by to integrate the trade were far from being flawless. From the outset, ECX declared that it aims at creating a national standard commodity coffee classification system; it eliminated direct trade and traceability; and enticed the government to controlling the value chain from farm gate to the border. These changes have had remarkable effects on coffee exporters, buyers, growers, and the coffee sector at large. I. Homogeneous National Coffee Brand For a country with millions of poor people, the temptation of utilizing the high paying fewer coffee brands to drive sales and increase the value of the country's overall coffee production is high. That ve...

Wide Angle Profiles One Woman’s Mission to End Hunger in Her Famine-Plagued Country Through Ethiopia’s First Commodities Exchange, July 22 on PBS Anchor Aaron Brown Reports from East Africa to Document the Efforts of Ethiopian Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin in the Market Maker ------- For my assessment of the ECX and readers' comments, click HERE  - Wondwossen ------- BUSINESS WIRE July 14, 2009 NEW YORK--Twenty-five years after Ethiopia’s famine captured the attention of the world, one startling fact prevails: while nearly one million people starved to death mainly in the north of the country, the south had a food surplus. The problem, says former World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin, is that the country lacked the economic mechanism to smoothly move commodities from one part of the country to another. Gabre-Madhin, a Cornell undergraduate at the time, saw clearly that the devastating famine was not a result of a lack of food but lack of food distribution. Haunted by the skelet...

For Part II, click HERE For Part II, click HERE In the past few weeks, too many readers asked me to share my views on the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and wanted to know what I think about its effects on the Ethiopian coffee sector in general, and the Specialty coffee industry in particular. I was also asked similar questions by producers of the PBS Wide Angle program that released this documentary program featuring Eleni Gebre-Medhin, founder of the ECX. While I continue to respond to as many of your emails as I can, I also thought it might be useful to post my comments here on the blog for everyone else to see. So, in the coming couple of days, I will post my views on the most frequently asked questions: What's your view on the ECX in general; What do you think are the effect of trading through the ECX on specialty coffee exporters and buyers; Is ECX good for coffee growers? Today, I share my views on the ECX in general as an introduction and to clarify my stance before...

Promised to return rest of the money to the exporters By Muluken Yewondwossen Capital July 20, 2009 The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has paid off the loans taken out by six banned coffee exporters. The re-payment of loans comes after the ministry exported beans seized off the major exporters, who were alleged to have been hoarding the commodity, through the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise and other private exporters. Three weeks ago, MoARD called the exporters and suppliers to confirm their bank account numbers for the transfer of the money, after it decided to clear bank loans that were taken to buy about 18, 000 tons of the subsequently confiscated beans from the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) and other local markets. In March this year, after the Government made the hoarding accusation, it seized and sold the coffee at the exchange market through selected intermediary members. The state-owned member of ECX, the Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise began to particip...