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Ethiopia’s coffee trading is soon to include
speciality coffee trading alongside the trading of
commercial coffee trading. The speciality coffee
trading measure aims at connecting farmers directly
with international buyers, opening a direct window
for them, according to Eleni Gebre Medhin, CEO of
the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX).
To date the ECX has been handling only commercial
grade coffee, whose origin is difficult to pinpoint.
Specialty coffee is designated by origin, which adds
value to it. The ECX and Specialty Coffee
Association of America (SCAA) organized the first
specialty coffee event Wednesday, October 21, 2009,
at the Sheraton Addis. This event was considered to
be the first step towards commencing speciality
coffee trading as it brought together key players in
the global specialty coffee industry and
international buyers to discuss how the ECX could
handle the new trading.
“Over time, we think that tables will turn and we
might be producing or trading a lot more specialty
coffee than commercial coffee,” Eleni had said in an
earlier interview with Fortune.
For coffee to be considered speciality coffee, its
quality, socio-economic impact on the producer,
environmental attributes, and traceability to the
grower must be evaluated. Quality and traceability
will be given greater emphasis Eleni says.
ECX started work to introduce speciality coffee
trading by travelling to Atlanta, GA in the US for
the annual event of the SCAA held in April.
ECX also started preparing the trade and capacity
building of the professionals who will taste and
grade coffee. That led to the professional
accreditation of 37 people by the Coffee Quality
Institute (CQI), including some of the coffee
tasters who used to work for the old Coffee Board.
CQI is a non-profit organization working to improve
coffee quality and the lives of the people who
produce it. CQI’s Q Grader Program is the coffee
industry’s only professional accreditation programme
for cuppers (coffee tasters), according to the
information from SCAA. The professionals thus
accredited will identify coffee that meets the
minimum SCAA standard.
The accreditation of these professionals has given
Ethiopia the largest number of Q Graders in Africa.
Some of these people were presenting speciality
coffee from Yirga Cheffe, Sidama, Jimma, Limmu,
Harar and a number of other places during the
Sheraton event, proudly displaying their Q Grader
badges on their chests.
There are currently 760 Licensed Q Graders
worldwide; Brazil, Costa Rica, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda
and the US have 10, 28, 18, 16, 18 and 74 Q Graders,
respectively.
The Ethiopian government is also in the process of
drafting legislation to recognize and accredit
international and national certification agencies,
such as those for organic coffee, according to Yacob
Yala, state minister of Agriculture and Rural
Development.
The state minister explained his government’s
commitment at the opening of the specialty coffee
event, focusing on finding appropriate solutions for
marketing specialty coffee in such a way as to be
fair to small producers.
The participants left for Dilla on Saturday, October
24 for the inauguration of the Dilla Regional
Laboratory and Warehouse. This centre is the third
to open within a month, following the inauguration
of one in Hawassa and another in Jimma. These
regional centres are expected to help keep coffee
sorted by origin without it getting mixed with
coffee from other origins.
ECX has handled the transaction of 161,000tns of
coffee worth almost three billion Br since December
2008, despite the challenges of the financial crisis
resulting in the global recession. |
