Specialty Coffee Promotion Crucial to be Competitive in World Market, Says Coffee Value Chain Advisor

Jimma April 2/2019 Although Ethiopia is among the few countries that has specialty coffee in the market menu, the ability and potential need to be promoted as the world is transferring its interest, according to Feed the Future Value Chain Activity Project.

Project Coffee Value Chain Advisor, Kilil Mesfin told ENA the above today on the sidelines of speciality coffee workshop underway in Jimma city.

Specialty coffee requires the hard work and collaboration of all stakeholders in the coffee sector, but it is the best way to be competitive in the market, he added.

According to him, coffee can be graded as specialty if it registeres above 80 percent from 100 percent of the ten requirements set by the standard.

The flavor of the coffee, its acidity and the roster methods of the coffee are among the ten international standards of specialty coffee, it was learned.

In this manner, he said that feed the future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity is working on improving specialty coffee of Ethiopia.

The advisor  stated that “over 45,000 small-holder coffee growers in 10 woredas of Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples regional states have been supported by our project that focused on specialty coffee and creating value chain."

He explained that the workshop is prepared to have a common understanding on specialty coffee among more than 90 coffee producers, exporters and the government.

In addition, coffee specialty business-to-business market value chain will also be created at the workshop.

During the workshop, adaptation of coffee specialty was raised as the crucial move to highly perform at the world coffee market where price is declining. Limitations of producing coffee specialty, value chain problems and other challenges of the coffee sector have also been discussed at the workshop.

The workshop is organized by Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain Activity. Feed the Future Ethiopia Value Chain activity is a five-year program that has been run in Ethiopia from 2017 to 2021 as part of US government's feed the future initiative and the government of Ethiopia Agricultural Growth Program.