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

Exporters
Coffee exporter means a person who, upon being licensed to trade coffee by the
appropriate government organ and fulfilling the requirements set by the Ministry, and upon
purchasing coffee from the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange or collecting from his own farm,
prepares, processes and exports coffee in compliance with the export quality and standards
[…] Any exporter shall have the contract and the correct sale price registered at the National
Bank of Ethiopia not exceeding 24 hours after the conclusion of a contract for sale of coffee,
and notify the same to the Ministry and other concerned authorities within 15 days […] shall
export coffee before the next harvest […] shall except in <strong>case</strong>s of mixing processes registered
under special permission of the Ministry, export coffee, without mixing different types and
maintaining the name of place of origin […] shall sell coffee by product leftover from export
coffee in the auction centres or the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange […] shall not resubmit for
sale to auction centres or to the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange once he purchased the export
coffee from the auction centre or from the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange and graded by the
coffee quality liquoring and inspection centre.
Exporters must be Ethiopian nationals and are not allowed to cup taste the coffee
before buying it at the auction (Stellmacher, 2007). Since the 2008 proclamation, exporters
had to change their former license by the new export certificate of competence and a lot of
them bought lands to own their coffee trees or became PLC members. This to keep exporting
their localized coffees and to control their certification tools in some <strong>case</strong>s 78
. Since producers
became potential exporters, former exporters willing to keep on exporting specific coffees had
to turn into producers too.
The government seized 17,000 tonnes of coffee in March 2009 and revoked the
licenses of six exporters it put in jail and accused of hoarding their stocks and waiting for
prices to rise. These exporters were the biggest ones, ensuring 40% of national export last
year, of which the famous Mulugeta, Nestlé supplier, who went to jail. This fed and still feed
the current coffee polemic. Coffee accounting for 60% of Ethiopian’s foreign exchange
revenue in 2007/2008 earned more than $525 million from exports of 170,888 tonnes. ECX
78 Refer 6.1.2) The August 2008 value chain changes’ principal loser: the Specialty Market
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