Ethiopia exports near $300 mln coffee

ADDIS ABABA, June 24 (Reuters) — Africa’s biggest coffee producer Ethiopia said on Friday it exported 144,925 tonnes and earned $296.3 million in the first 11 months of the trading year July 2004-June 2005.

By comparison, Ethiopia — the birthplace of coffee and one of the poorest nation in the world — exported a total of 146,000 tonnes worth $207 million throughout 2003/04.

The Agriculture Ministry’s head of marketing Zwedi Gidy added that Ethiopia signed sales contracts for over 190,000 tonnes of coffee worth $394 million over the same 11-month period of the current trading year.

“The remaining 49,555 tonnes of coffee for which sales contracts have already been signed will be shipped in due course,” Zwedi told Reuters.

The official said the contract figure had benefited from improved production and better world prices for coffee.

Zwedi said there had been great improvement in coffee arrivals at auction centers compared with previous years, because smallholders were receiving technical and financial support from the private sector which helped them in producing quality coffee.

All Ethiopian coffee is organically grown, but because only few areas are certified the country was unable to demand a good price, the official said.

Coffee is classified as organic when it is grown without any chemical input. Most coffee in Ethiopia is in forested or semi-forested areas, and has no contact with chemicals.

Coffee is Ethiopia’s main cash crop accounting for over 60 percent of the country’s annual foreign currency earnings.

Ethiopia’s annual production of coffee ranges between 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes, half of it consumed locally.