Ethiopian Review

By Yohannes Anberbir

The Ethiopian Grain Trade Enterprise (EGTE) exported its first consignment of coffee late this week to a German company, which agreed to buy the beans early in April this year.
The first consignment is 90 tonnes, according to head of its marketing department.
“This is a very small amount, however, it is our first delivery,” he told Capital.
A month earlier the Government suspended the licenses of six major coffee exporters and 88 coffee suppliers, accusing them of hoarding the item with the intention of smashing the new electronic trading system, the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).
There are over 100 coffee exporters in Ethiopia, but the six suspended exporters used to control or export 70 per cent of the trade.
Intending to fill the hole created by the suspended companies, the Government ordered its local grain price stabiliser, the EGTE, to get involved in the coffee exporting business.
Since then, the enterprise has been involved in the auction centre and has bought more than 42,000 quintals of coffee through open auction at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).
Some analysts in the industry think that finding foreign buyers would be difficult for the enterprise, due to it being a new face in the business.
Nonetheless, the enterprise sent the first batch last Friday. The enterprise is set to deliver the remainder in the coming weeks. In total, the enterprise agreed to sell 12,000 quintals of the beans to the Germany-based company.
Though the agreement made the German company the first buyer of EGTE’s coffee, a French company also finalised an agreement in the same month, according to Temesgen. The enterprise is also trying to reach other European, American, Middle Eastern and Asian markets.
Ethiopia earned close to 175 million dollars in the first six months of the 2008/2009 fiscal year from the export of 59,188 tonnes of coffee, which is 61.2 per cent of the planned amount, which has a total value of 285 million dollars.
Compared to the previous year’s performance over the same period, coffee exports this year increased by 14 per cent in volume and 21 per cent in earnings, according to data from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. However, top Government officials fear attainment of the annual export target will be difficult.

(Capital)