Ethiopia coffee exports up in six months to Dec

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Ethiopia, Africa’s largest producer of coffee, exported a total of 52,743 tonnes of coffee in the six months to December last year, an increase of 13.4 percent compared to the same period the previous year, the Ministry of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

“Of the total exported during the period, 15,612 tonnes was washed coffee and the remaining 37,131 tonnes was unwashed sun dried coffee,” Abreham Begashawe, Manager of Coffee and Tea Quality Control Center at the ministry told Reuters.

He added that Ethiopia earned $90 million from the exports covering July to December 2004.

“The price of washed coffee from Yirgachefe, Sidamo, Limu which was sold for $0.78 to $0.87 per pound previously now fetched $1.18 per pound,” he said.

“Unwashed coffee from Harar, Nekemte, Sidamo also fetched better prices. The price of a pound of unwashed coffee which fetched between $0.60 to $0.65 previously, now attracted $0.90 and above,” he said.

Abreham said Japan was the leading buyer of Ethiopian coffee, accounting for about 30 percent of the total exports, followed by European countries and the Middle Eastern countries.

Ethiopia exported 146,000 tonnes of coffee in the whole of 2003/04 and earned $207 million. The Horn of Africa country sold 126,800 tonnes in 2002/03 and earned $161 million.

Ethiopia’s coffee crop year runs from October to September, but sales are normally calculated on the financial year July to June.

Coffee accounts for about 60 percent of Ethiopia’s annual foreign currency earnings.