The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority banned 81 coffee exporters from trading with the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) because they failed to export coffee in a timely manner and thus were in breech of their contracts.
During an audit, the Authority found that nearly 200 exporters did not sell their coffee to the international market.
“The action is being taken as part of the Authority’s reform to maintain the quality of Ethiopian coffee by establishing a sustainable and traceable coffee market globally,” said Shafi Umer vice General Director of the authority.
More than half of the exporters brought their case to the authority after a short notice.
Some of the reasons are connected with the recipient companies who refused to govern in accordance with their agreement to receive the coffee. The authority is strictly working with The Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with these cases, according to the vice general director.
The ban on the 81 coffee exporters was issued a week ago. Individual exporters, cooperative unions and state owned business enterprises are on the list.
“The ban will be effective until the exporters are able to justify why they did not export their product last fiscal year,” Shafi added.
For the last eight months, Ethiopia earned over 607 million USD by exporting nearly 169 tons of coffee which is 77 percent of the targeted amount.
Ethiopian Arabica coffee exports account for 25-30 percent of the region’s total export revenue. Ethiopia accounts for 29 percent of the African coffee trade. Arabica coffee is a high-quality coffee in the world and developed countries are regular importers. Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Belgium, Spain, France and Sudan are the major importers of the Ethiopian Arabica coffee.