Ethiopia Tests Internet Coffee Auction

ADDIS ABABA - Mar 2/05 - IRIN -- Ethiopia has turned to the Internet to help sell its finest beans, the agriculture ministry said on Tuesday.

In the first move of its kind in the country, the ministry is to start auctioning nine of its best quality coffee brands to help boost sales and reach a wider audience, officials added.

"This is the first time we have ever tried something like this," Abraham Begashawe, manager at the Coffee and Tea Quality Control Centre, told IRIN. "We are hoping the auction will attract a wider audience and also increase sales overall."

Ethiopia produces around 200,000 metric tons (MT) of coffee a year. It expects to sell around 30,000 kg in the auction, appealing mainly to small, specialized roasting companies in the US, Japan and Europe. Some nine different types of coffee have been selected for the auction from 196 different beans.

According to the government, coffee contributes 60% of Ethiopia's foreign earnings and supports 25% of its 70 million people. In recent years, however, the price has slumped, hitting export earnings, which dropped from 70% to 35% in five years.

Ethiopia's finance ministry estimates the collapse in coffee prices has cost the country some US $830 million in lost export earnings over that same period. This revenue, according to the NGO, Oxfam, could have helped to build the equivalent of 1,250 health centres or 2,000 primary schools in the country.

"One in four people in Ethiopia depend on coffee," said Tadesse Meskela, head of the Oromiya Coffee Cooperative. "Farmers are going hungry, unable to buy medicine or send their children to school because of the low prices."

Abraham said that although prices were beginning to creep up again, they expected to receive a high price of around US $4 per kilo in the auction. Half of the coffee drunk in Japan is from Ethiopia while most is exported to Germany -- some 30,000 MT, with Britain importing around a thousand kilos a year.

Copyright (c) 2005 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs