Ethiopia Coffee Exports May Rise at Least 7% This Year
Coffee exports from Ethiopia, Africa’s second-biggest shipper of the beans, may rise at least 7 percent this year, the Ethiopian Coffee Exporters’ Association said.
Exports are expected to be “no less” than 150,000 metric tons in the six months through July 7, the second half of Ethiopia’s fiscal year, Tesfaye Kenea, acting general manager of the association, said in an interview today in the capital, Addis Ababa.
Shipments in the first half totalled about 60,000 tons, 35,000 tons less than the same period a year earlier, Tesfaye said. Exports declined mainly because the crop was delayed for two months by a “lengthy” rainy season and because “the New York price is going down, but the Ethiopian price is not going down proportionally,” Tesfaye said.
Arabica coffee for May delivery has fallen 12 percent so far this year, and traded at $1.9920 a pound on ICE Futures U.S. at 9:43 a.m. in New York. Ethiopian buyers currently pay an average of $1.9883 per pound, according to data from the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange.
Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee producer, relies on the beans to generate about a third of its foreign-currency earnings. Exports of 196,119 tons brought in $841.7 million last year, according to the country’s Trade Ministry.
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