ECONOMICS OF THE ETHIOPIAN COFFEE INDUSTRY

The topic, "Economics of the Ethiopian Coffee Industry" on which I was invited to speak is of a considerable magnitude and I have found it impossible to cover all the relevant aspects in this short paper.

Instead I shall try to identify and discuss only a few of this aspects in the hope that I have selected the issues of greatest interest to the participants of this historical symposium.

In the early 1970’s, nationals, and expatriates in the fields of Development Economics advocated and prescribed to the policy makers that coffee has to be diversified, if possible, substitute it entirely by another commodity.
Unfortunately, coffee still remains a second to none foreign exchange earning crop in Ethiopia and will remain so for the foreseeable decades.

I will review part of the stock of available information covering the origin, climatic conditions, areas of coffee, organizations supporting the coffee industry, the cultural practices, production, marketing, and outstanding issues.

I International Symposium on Horticultural Economics in Developing Countries

B. Mariam

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1991.270.6