Ethiopia - July 08, 2024

Ethiopia - Recent

Ethiopian coffee has been gaining a foothold in the Chinese market, with its sales volume growing 27 percent annually on average in recent years.

Hagere Mariam, which is located 481 kilometers away from Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, is home to one of the biggest forest coffee farms in the East African country.

Coffee farmer Mamush Taye Feyissa owns a vast farm with many employees to meet the growing export market.

For Mamush, the growing international market is providing better business opportunities, particularly the Chinese market.

Relatively new to the industry, Chinese consumers are now showing a voracious appetite for quality Ethiopian Arabica coffee, according to Mamush.

China has been importing around 20,000 metric tonnes of Ethiopian coffee annually for the last two years, becoming the eighth-largest importer.

Coffee is one of Ethiopia's largest hard currency earning commodities and a leading agricultural export product.

Adugna Debela attributes the surging sales to a significant increase in Chinese coffee buyers who import coffee directly from Ethiopia.

Shotlist:
Ethiopia - Recent:
1. Various of coffee farm, coffee cherries on trees;
2. Various of Mamush Taye Feyissa, coffee farmer and exporter walking;
3. Various of Mamush Taye Feyissa, other coffee farmers working;
4. SOUNDBITE (Amharic, dubbed in English) Mamush Taye Feyissa, coffee farmer and exporter (ending with shot 5):
"Our coffee has a special process which guarantees the coffee product in the end. We ferment the coffee up to the global standard and later we send it to the drying bed for an additional processing. Generally, we produce the best forest coffee in the world here.";
5. Various of coffee farmers working;
6. SOUNDBITE (Amharic, dubbed in English) Mamush Taye Feyissa, coffee farmer and exporter:
"The most important market and the one we expect a lot out of at the moment is the Chinese market. I'm sending a lot of coffee to China myself and it really is becoming a business we can all bank on.";
7. Various of coffee farmers putting coffee beans into packs;
8. Various of packs of coffee beans in warehouse; coffee beans in box;
9. SOUNDBITE (Amharic, dubbed in English) Adugna Debela, director, Ethiopian Coffee And Tea Authority (partially overlaid with shot 10):
"Over the last 10 months alone, we have exported about 210,000 tonnes of coffee. Out of that we have collected more than a billion U.S. dollars. Comparing this to our performance at the same time last year, this shows 29,000 tonnes more exports."
[SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE];
10. Packs of coffee beans in warehouse
[SHOT OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE];
11. Various of pedestrians, traffic.

[Restriction - No access Chinese mainland]