Challenges And Opprtunities Of Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association.

Abstract

Ethiopia as birthplace of coffee with immense potential of organic coffee, however, has not yet fully utilized its potential in generating revenue from export. This Research project designed to identify Challenges and opportunities of Ethiopian Coffee Exporters Association. For the study, both primary and secondary data were collected using appropriate data collection instruments. The study employed census method instead of sampling due to low population size of members of the association and used descriptive statistics to analyze data. It was found that Ethiopian coffee export volume has been increasing whereas trend of export value shows fluctuation but unit price per ton has been declining significantly. In addition, the acceptance of Ethiopian coffee in foreign market is moderate, due to inadequate information about Ethiopian coffee in foreign market and coffee quality related issues. According to the study, most coffee exporters’ do not have business strategic plan and lack adequate capital during peak coffee supply period in local market. Increasing quality awareness at all level, from production to international market, strong promotion of Ethiopian coffee to the rest of the world and improving existing support to coffee exporters by concerned government bodies are the main recommendations forwarded by this research.