Ethiopia amasses an extra USD 120 million from coffee export during the first quarter of the budget year surpassing its projection.
In the first three months of the 2021/22 budget year the country has earned additional USD 120 million or over half of the target from the coffee export against the amount that the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) set to attain.
“We have earned USD 330 million in the first quarter of year,” said Adugna Debela(PhD), Director General of ECTA, adding, “It shows that it would be easy to surpass a billion dollar earnings in the full year.”
The global coffee price is surging in the past few months because the biggest producer and exporter of the bean, Brazil has been affected in its harvest this season.
Due to that the performance of Ethiopia that also registered marvelous achievement in the past budget year from coffee export has continued to maintain newer records for this year too.
For instance in the first month of the budget year that started July 8, the authority had projected to export 21,340 tons of coffee but actually it attained to ship 31,146 tons and earn USD 115.5 million that surpass the target by 146 percent and 161 percent in volume and value respectively.
Similarly, the July performance has shown increment of 64 percent and 81 percent in volume and earning respectively compared with the same period of last year.
The authority is aggressively working to expand the high quality coffee, which is the major hard currency source of the country and well known by its quality and flavor, output ranging up to grade 3 than commercial coffee. In this regard in the 2019/20 budget year, high amount of quality coffee was exported than commercial coffee, which took the lion’s share in the past experience.
According the Director General, the price surge in the global market will not be a threat for Ethiopian exporters to default on their contract.
Meanwhile, it has been observation that contract default has occurred in other markets because of the volatility of the commodity price globally. The Ethiopian authority underlined that it would not be allowed in Ethiopia unless mutual agreement of both sides from exporters and buyers are reached.
“We are providing weekly price range assessment for our exporters that shall help them to analyze and tag their rate, due to that we don’t consider potential contract default could occur,” he explains, adding, “While a year old contract administration directive is not also allowed to terminate the contract and we did not see any compliant in related with default.”
“The weekly minimum price range that benchmarks and includes the global market shall enable to make the default almost zero. The market weekly information helps exporters to boost their capacity on price negotiation with international buyers,” he told Capital.
“We have to use this opportunity and make available quality coffee to earn significant revenue in the current and coming years as well,” he added about the current price surge in the global market that is expected to be continued in the coming months.
Global forecasts that were estimated by different observers including the International Coffee Organization (IOC) indicated that the price of the bean will increase more in the coming months because of the mismatch between demand and supply that is expected to make Ethiopia a beneficiary.
According to IOC monthly coffee market report in September 2021, coffee prices reached new record highs as the monthly average of the ICO composite indicator price was 170.02 US cents/ pound (lb), an increase of 6.2 percent as compared to 160.14 US cents/lb in August 2021. “These price levels during coffee year 2020/21 confirmed a net recovery from the low levels experienced over the last three coffee years. The coffee market continued to be driven by weather in Brazil and by Covid-related disruptions affecting trade in Asia,” it said.
Coffee exports soar in returns as price surges
Ethiopia exhibits the 4th edition of agrofood & plasticprintpack
The fourth session of agro food and plasticprint pack Ethiopia exhibition was opened on October 14, 2021 at skylight hotel. The exhibition primarily focused on agriculture, food and beverage technology food ingredients as well as plastic, print and packaging (PPP) technologies and solutions. The international tradeshow spanned from the 14 to 16 October, 2021.
On the event supported by key international organizations from Europe, Middle East and Africa in addition to the local government and private institutions, saw hundreds of participants from different countries using the platform to display their products on the show case.
Pavilions came from Germany, Italy, Russia and Turkey on the event organized by the German trade show specialists Fairtrade Messe in cooperation with their Ethiopian partners Prana events.
Strengthening Kazakhstan, Ethiopia’s bilateral ties
Embassy of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia calls on Ethiopia to strength its relation and internal and external policies trends between the two countries.
On Wednesday, October 13, 2021 Barlybay Sadykov, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Ethiopia gave a press briefing on Kazakhstan’s important internal and external policies trends and on the similarities of Kazakh and Ethiopian national development goals.
During the briefing, special attention was paid to the international initiatives of Kazakhstan in the field of security and peace building, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, the fight against terrorism, peacekeeping, and interreligious harmony.
The ambassador explained Kazakhstan’s experience in overcoming crises, developing friendly relations with external partners, as well as the prospects for developing bilateral relations between Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.
As part of their relation, strong trade ties could benefit the two countries, said the ambassador,
The ambassador also expressed that the strong relations is beneficial as he explained that Kazakhstan mostly imports agricultural products from Africa African countries. “We have trade relations with Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and also Democratic Republic of Congo importing different products.” As he said the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Africa is huge.
Kazakhstan trade turnover with African countries annually reached about 800 million dollars which the country has 9 billion dollars annual trade turn over with the main trade partners being European countries, China and Russia.
With its huge resource of vegetable, fruits and coffee, the ambassador has called Ethiopia and Ethiopian investor to look at Kazakhstan’s demand and to start expanding its trade relation to that regard. “We would like to invite the business community to explore the market, and see how they can curve a trade or investment opportunity with us,” opined the ambassador.
As the ambassador said there was only one Kazakhstan Company in Ethiopia working in the construction before the outbreak of the pandemic. “When situation gets stable in the future hopefully the company will come back,” said the ambassador.
Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia were established on September 5, 2011 through an exchange of notes.
On September 22, 2016, in New York, on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed on bilateral consultations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. The parties agreed to conduct a constructive dialogue on various aspects of bilateral relations and international issues of mutual interest, which will contribute to better understanding and development of friendly relations between Kazakhstan and Ethiopia.
Tripeople, KOTRA donates replaceable mask filters
A South Korean firm, Tripeople and KOTRA Addis Ababa have donated 315,000 dollars’ worth of replaceable mask filters to Oromia Health Bureau.
The Director General of KOTRA, Dr. Cho, Eunbum delivered the donation goods of 1.23 million replaceable mask filters to Dr. Mengistu Bekele, Head of Oromia Health Bureau at the ORHB’s head office located at Sarbet, Addis Ababa.
Tripeople’s CEO, Cho Joon delivered a message saying, “I hope this donation of replaceable mask filter will help the people of Oromia fight against the pandemic of COVID-19.”
Director General of Korea Business Center, Dr. Cho added that, “This donation demonstrates Korean people’s commitment to supporting Ethiopia in overcoming the pandemic, and I believe that many other similar endeavors will follow.” Dr. Cho also mentioned that “As a commercial Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, KOTRA Addis Ababa’s key mission is to promote trade and investment between Korea and Ethiopia, and supporting corporate social responsibility (CSR) by Korean firms in Ethiopia is one of our key activities.” Dr. Cho also noted that ESLSE participated in the donation by exempting the peak surcharge of more than six thousand dollars for shipping the donation goods, and complimented ESLSE’s contribution.
Dr. Mengistu on his part said “our organization sincerely appreciated Tri People Clean & Beauty Science Co., Ltd., and Korea Business Center Addis Ababa for making this generous donation. Even if the disease spread has shown a relative decrease in the past few weeks, the recent evidence shows that the number of new cases and deaths is rising and like other African countries, the current situation could indicate the third wave of COVID-19 is beginning in Ethiopia too. As a result, this donation will help the people of Oromia from the pandemic.” Finally, Dr. Mengistu said, the donation will be distributed among residents and first responders as part of the region’s overall response efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.
