Addis Ababa — :- The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) disclosed that Ethiopia has earned 140 million USD from 27,000 tons of coffee exported in last August alone.
ECTA Direcor-General, Adugna Debela told ENA that Ethiopia earned over a billion USD exporting 240,000 tons of coffee in the past Ethiopian Budget Year.
According to him, Saudi Arabia, Germany, South Korea, Belgium, Japan, the US and UAE were the main destinations of the exported coffee last year.
Stating that the quantity and quality of Ethiopia's coffee export has improved in the past few years, he noted that the country earned 1.34 billion during the stated budget year.
"Coffee as our main export product to earn foreign currency is keeping the economy upright. The reform over the past two or three years has brought many changes. The amount of exported coffee has increased. The foreign currency generation increased as a result."
Global coffee price has significantly dropped, but Ethiopia's coffee supply has increased by 18 percent, he noted.
This was achieved by being able to export products resistant to the changing market.
Work is underway in cooperation with the stakeholders, including the farmers, to achieve the plan for this year, he said.
"The price of coffee globally dropped a lot, but due to the reform, export of quality coffee increased by 18 percent, whiles the world's coffee decreased by 30 percent. Thus, we have to export a product that can withstand the changing market. We are also doing extensive work with stakeholders and farmers to achieve the plan during the current budget year."
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According to Adugna, the plan is to earn 1.75 billion USD by exporting 350, 000 tons of coffee this year.
The performance so far registered in this regard is very encouraging. According to the director general, 40 million USD was earned from 27,000 tons of exported coffee. This indicates the fact that it is possible to sustain the past success to achieve the annual plan.
"We planned to earn 1.75 billion USD by exporting 350,000 tons of coffee this year. Based on our plan, we sent 27,000 tons of coffee and earned 140 million USD this month alone against the 30,000 tons plan. So this is promising. If we continue this way we will achieve the plan to earn 1.75 billion USD."
The country, which earned 1.4 billion USD and 1.3 billion USD in the past consecutive Ethiopian Fiscal Years respectively, planned and is working to earn 1.75 billion USD this year.
The authority announced that it is working to increase the income from coffee to more than 2 billion dollars in the next two years.
