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Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee grower and the birth place of Coffea Arabica, is expected to see coffee production rise 0.3 percent to 7.62 million 60-kilogram bags in the new 2021-22 crop cycle in which the East African country's growers so far have avoided weather problems affecting the new harvest. (Photo by Maja Wallengren)
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Coffee consumption in Ethiopia has always been popular across the country so even if the overall production may come in slightly higher in the new 2021-22 crop year there is no guarantee that exports will rise. (Photo by Maja Wallengren)
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Production in Ethiopia has slowly but steadily been expanding from between 5.0 to 6.0 million bags 10-15 years ago to well over 7.0 million bags today thanks to both private and public projects focusing on rising yields through improving agricultural practices. (Photo by Maja Wallengren)
Coffee production in Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee grower and the birthplace of Coffea arabica, will rise 0.3% to 7.62 million 60-kilogram bags in the new 2021-22 crop cycle, for which physical harvesting started in October, industry officials and green coffee traders said this week.
In what is a rare piece of good news from the root of the coffee supply chain at a time where most coffee growing countries across the world are suffering smaller crops from dwindling yields, total output in Ethiopia’s recently completed 2020-21 harvest cycle ended up 1.7% at 7.6 million bags from a harvest of 7.475 million bags in the previous cycle, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Ethiopia grows exclusively arabica coffee and about 10 years ago the government launched a nationwide project to increase production, primarily by offering subsidized access to seedlings and technical assistance to support the renovation of existing small-holder farm plots with higher plant density to increase yields combined with the application of better agricultural practices. The government also offers support toward more industrial commercial production at a small number of larger privately-run estates by allowing for long-term lease of land to independent companies which provides an important boost to overall production numbers. Green coffee buyers and roasters visiting Ethiopia confirm that all indications point to a better crop both in the cycle just completed as well as the new harvest, from which fresh supply will start to reach export markets in February.
“It seems that Ethiopia will have a better harvest this year, especially in the south which had a very small harvest last year we are seeing production getting back,” Philip von der Goltz, managing partner of Germany’s green coffee traders List + Beisler GmbH, told STiR Coffee and Tea in an interview in early November, as he was returning from an extended crop visit to Ethiopia during the last half of October. ”Talking to both growers, exporters, and traders there is a consensus that the new 2021-22 harvest is looking good and so far exports are indicating a good season,”
Von der Goltz also said he was impressed to witness many smallholder coffee growers in Ethiopia’s famous Sidamo coffee growing regions making significant improvements to what for many are becoming a much more professionally and economically sustainable family-run coffee enterprise, even for small-holder growers with no more than 2-3 hectares of land. The improvement both in higher yields as well as better and more diverse quality beans comes above all from over a decade of focus on improving and implementing the concept that today in the world of coffee is widely known as best agricultural practices. While this initiative was launched by the government between 2008-2010 many private companies across the green coffee trade are supporting such activities through direct participation working with growers in the coffee communities across Ethiopia’s many growing regions.
“With best agricultural practices alone you can achieve a lot, from the basic increase in productivity through higher yields to using modern techniques for inter-cropping, composting, stumping, pruning, and replanting trees which has never been a common practice but by bringing training to the communities and making sure the whole family is involved we see how the family production is becoming an entrepreneurship,” von der Goltz told STiR. A coffee merchant that dates back to 1901, the Hamburg-based List + Beisler works with over 1,800 farmers in the Sidamo and Yirgacheffe regions on improving agricultural practices and is in the process of moving into the Djimma region to expand training activities as part of the company’s overall commitment to enhancing sustainability for growers at the source of origin.
With production in Ethiopia slowly but steadily expanding from between 5-6 million bags 10-15 years ago to well over 7 million bags today, it is fitting that the country that gave birth to arabica coffee sometime between the 3rd and 6th century today has become the world’s third largest grower of arabica coffee and the biggest producer overall in Africa.
“Ethiopia is forecast to produce 7.6 million bags (60 kilograms) of arabica coffee in 2021/22 and is the world’s third‐largest arabica producer behind Brazil and Colombia,” said USDA in its latest update on Ethiopia. Coffee production is vital to the Ethiopian economy and approximately 15 million people are directly or indirectly involved in the industry. In 2020, coffee exports totaled $800 million and accounted for over 25% of total exports
It is a positive development to coffee lovers that Ethiopia’s new 2021-22 harvest so far avoided the more adverse effects of irregular or extreme weather which caused large-scale losses in the world’s top grower Brazil and provoked arabica prices at the ICE futures exchange in New York to rally to 7-year highs near $2.30 per pound. The small rise in production, however, may not translate into higher exports as Ethiopians remain among the highest per-capita consumers found among producing nations.
Total coffee exports from the new 2021-21 cycle will reach 4.1 million bags, according to USDA. This will represent a 2.5% increase over exports of 4.0 million bags in the 2020-21 cycle but which is actually down 3.4% from exports of 4.135 million bags in the 2019-20 harvest, and also below the historic high exports of 4.174 million bags reached in the 2018-19 crop year, USDA figures show.