IACO Lauds Ethiopia for Promoting Africa’s Coffee Globally

Addis Ababa  November 29/2024 (ENA) Inter-African Coffee Organization (IACO) Secretary General Ambassador Solomon Rutega praised Ethiopia for promoting African coffee at the global market.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ambassador Rutega noted Ethiopia is enormously promoting African coffee in terms of enhancing quality as its coffee is well-known all-over the world.

Ethiopia is playing a critical role in making Africa’s coffee competitive at the global stage, as the country takes immense strides in its enduring legacy as a global leader in the coffee sector.

In recent years, Ethiopia has been undertaking massive economic reforms in various spheres including the export sector as coffee is the backbone of the nation’s export trade.  

Coffee is the pillar of Ethiopia’s economy as the sector is growing despite many challenges, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed recently confirmed.

Ethiopia is doing a lot of promotion for African coffee in terms of enhancing quality, the Secretary General noted.  

“As the origin of coffee, you have the advantage, people like to come and see in terms of tourism where coffee was discovered,” he stated.

The commitment right from the political leadership is very clear to further boost the coffee sector, he said, adding Ethiopian coffee training center is also doing very well in Addis Ababa.

Stating that Ethiopia is working continuously in value addition, in creating jobs in the whole value chain and promotion of roasted coffees to other markets, he said “We will learn from Ethiopia and roll it out to other African countries.

Ethiopian coffee is known all-over the world, Rutega said, stating that as the country is the origin of coffee, it has the advantage in terms of tourism.

As Africa's leading producer of Arabica coffee and 3rd largest in the world, Ethiopia reached a significant milestone in the past fiscal year, earning 1.43 billion USD in coffee exports.

The country also targets to earn 2 billion USD this Ethiopian Fiscal Year.