Ethiopia Begins Electronic Trading Of Coffee Beans

(RTTNews) -  Ethiopia, Africa’s largest coffee producer, began the electronic trading of coffee beans for the first time on a national commodity exchange on Tuesday.

The electronic trading of the beans is aimed at helping small coffee farmers to get better prices for their produce and to improve the quality of exported coffee. It replaces the previous system of sales through middlemen, and provides the farmers access to current market prices.

The Ethiopian government has set up the commodity exchange earlier in the year, and the exchange deals with the trade of trades in maize, wheat, sesame seeds and haricot beans, apart from coffee beans.

The exchange has opened a number of warehouses to collect the beans. While the buyers are required to show a pre-trade deposit in banks, the sellers have to produce warehouse receipts to take part in the electronic trading at the exchange.

Ethiopia takes pride in its coffee production and exports, which accounts to almost a third of its total foreign exchange earnings. Last season alone, the African country exported nearly 170,900 tones of coffee beans, worth over $525 million in the international market.

Related Posts

1. Ethiopia Commodity Exchange to launch online trading
2. Seattle Times asks: Who’s getting the coffee from Ethiopia?
3. Japan May Resume Coffee Imports From Ethiopia
4. Ethiopia rejects coffee output decline report
5. Straightening out coffee facts in Ethiopia