A study case on coffee (Coffea arabica): Limu Coffe - IRD

- the organic coffee export licence
- the fair trade coffee export licence
To get it, we need the general export licence, then the certificate of organic coffee
delivered by the certifying company. Since January 2008, we were certified by BCS Okö
Company. We sent it to Trade & Industry Ministry. But to get the additional licences we had
to find a market first. We expect these licences for the next production year, maybe in
October-November of this year.”
Oxfam GB officer: “After 2003 coffee crisis, the Oromiya Agricultural and Marketing
Output Agency employed us to work on Limu coffee; the Limu Inara union was created, and
we had find solutions to the crisis, and other export markets. Our intervention purpose is to
find markets, to create linkages between the union and exporters/foreign buyers. We reached
it, and had relations with French and Italian buyers but, in summer 2008, Ethiopian
government banned organic coffee from export because Japan complained that coffee bags
were not conforming. Since, the Ethiopian Quality Standards Authority has become the
certifier of the certifiers and government stopped halting exports. The union is now looking
for a new certifier. BCS Okö is no more certifying it.”
Union and coffee quality
Union’s president: “Quality is made step-by-step: 1- Preparing quality seeds (disease
resistance, heavy productivity) selected from the mother tree (which productivity is known). 2-
Preparing the seedlings. 3- Selecting a good, suitable site for coffee, planting seedlings. 4-
Well-done management. After 3 years, we collect quality coffee. There is a management
quality control made by DA and the union. And by market groups itself. At buying we operate
by a physical examination by seeing the coffee beans. There is a difference between dried full
ripened beans and dried no full ripened beans. We rent a hullery in Genet to process this
coffee, and the quarantine place officer controls that process.
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