EDITOR’S NOTE: Is there any thing Ethiopia’s dictator Meles Zenawi and his tribal juna that are in charge of the Ethiopian regime can do right? What does the dumb dictator, whose only expertise is killing people to stay in power, know about the coffee market?
By Oliver Schwaner-Albright | The New York Times
In the latest scrimmage in the battle to control Ethiopia’s coffee trade, the government has suspended the licenses of the country’s largest coffee exporters, it is reported today. Until things get sorted out, no coffee is leaving Ethiopia.
The government accuses the exporters of keeping coffee off the international market until prices rise. Coffee is Ethiopia’s number one export and the beleaguered country’s primary source of foreign currency.
This is the latest twist in a saga being watched closely by both the specialty coffee community and those concerned about alleviating poverty in the developing world.
In 2006 the Ethiopian government trademarked “Yirgacheffe,” the name of the country’s most celebrated coffee-growing region, hoping to use its cachet to help all their coffee exports. Then in December, the government mandated that all coffee growers sell their crops through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange, to insure that all beans fetched an adequate price. Some antipoverty groups thought this would help all Ethiopiain coffee growers.
It meant, though, that coffee roasters in the United States and other coffee importing nations would not be able to buy from specific growers whose beans they prize the most. It effectively ends direct trade for single-origin and microlot coffee.
George Howell of Terroir Coffee, a respected roasting company near Boston, Also points out that the government’s efforts might cheapen the brand. He wrote in his newsletter:
“What scares me is that the trademark route in no way guarantees that the coffee even comes from the particular ‘designated’ region (ironically while Yirgacheffe now becomes a trademark, any coffee lover thinks of it immediately as a region). It is merely a trademark, without any guarantee of origin or traceability.”
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FORUM | 3 Comments
Who cares anyways. The fat coffee dealers make millions and by far they are the richest. The government’s skirmish with them may have some good cause but it is all about a turf. No one is thinking about the poor farmer. Not worthy of news. For that matter, they can all go to hell.
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March 26th, 2009 at 2:59 PM
I agree with Tezibt comment. As far as I know all the coffee earnings goes to Weyane coffers; and what is left over is used to “Develop” Tigrai and Tigrai alone. So, the Ethiopian people shouldn’t be affected by this one way or the other. They never had it and they probably want have it as long as all we do is talk, talk and talk on how much we hate Weyane!
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March 26th, 2009 at 5:45 PM
The Ethiopian government headed by Meles Zenawi is going crazy. They are in a big mess and do not know what to do with the economic crisis in Ethiopia. Well, the west has no plan for now to hire the Ethiopian soldiers to fight a war, and Meles has no other commodity than his soldiers and no money to feed them. I don’t want to be him at this time.
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March 26th, 2009 at 10:02 PM