Ethiopian coffee occupies a special place globally as the country is the birth place of coffee with incredible diversity which every company wants to purchase, World Coffee Research Asian and Africa Director Kraig Kraft said.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Kraft noted that “Ethiopian coffee occupies a very special place globally. As the birth place of coffee, there is incredible diversity and quality of Ethiopian coffee that every company wants to purchase and every coffee drinker around the globe wants to drink.”
Stressing the need to continue to promote the brand of Ethiopian coffee across the globe, he said “I think everyone across the globe purchases Ethiopian coffee.”
Highlighting that there is a demand to produce more coffee, he said it needs to taking care and respect the natural environment.
“The solution we are putting forward is to figure out how you can increase the productivity of the existing coffee farms and the existing coffee farmers.”
More than 5 million households relay on coffee production in Ethiopia.
Citing that there is lot of varieties of coffee in Ethiopia, Kraig stressed that the future of Ethiopia’s coffee is bright but there is a need for a lot of innovation on how Ethiopian farmers access the global market.
For the director, working on increasing research and development, innovation, and new varieties that can meet the increasing demand is crucial.
Director of Crop Research at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Taye Tadesse said Ethiopia is a country with huge genetic resources for a number of crops and coffee is one of the crops to use the genetic resource.
In order to meet the challenges posed especially by climate change and shifting of the global market, accelerating innovation on breeding of improved coffee varieties is a must to ensure coffee’s continued success in Ethiopia, it was indicated.
Relating to the volatility of the weather condition, there are uncertainties in term of the weather and the amount of rainfall, he said, adding the temperature which is increasing will have significant effect on the coffee sector.
He stressed the need to have a vibrant sector that can address the challenges today. Despite the huge change in terms of the weather, there is a possibility to overcome it because of the fact that Ethiopia has very huge genetic resource, he stated.
Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) this week told ENA that Ethiopia has obtained over 1.1 billion USD from coffee exports in the 11 months of this concluding Ethiopian fiscal year.
The authority attributed the success to the emphasis given to exporting high-quality coffee, as the share of the specialty coffee in Ethiopia has reached 70 percent.
Coffee is critical to Ethiopia’s economy, generating 24 percent of the nation’s export income. USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, and Germany are the major coffee export destinations of Ethiopia.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency