The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority (ECTA) discloses that it will carry on its focus on the export of specialty coffee beans so as to accelerate the success on export earnings.
Adugna Debele, head of ECTA and scientist on the coffee production, said that the success that has been registered on the coffee export earnings was mainly due to the reform work done on the market linkage and focus for the export of high earnings specialty coffee despite additional internal and external factors.
Coffee export earnings have registered consecutive record earnings. Even though the 2021/22 budget year is yet to come to a close, the coffee export earnings have surpassed last year’s performance, which was also a record for the sector.
A year ago, the country had generated USD 907 million from the bean’s export that surpassed a billion dollars in ten months of the current budget year, peaking at USD 1.014 billion through export of over 232,000 metric tons.
“We hope that the coffee earnings will be at least USD 1.2 billion by the end of the budget year with the export volume of 300,000 metric tons,” Adugna explained.
“The major success for the sector may not be related with the volume, while irrelevant market processes have been cut,” he added.
He added that the authority has been giving prudent attention for the export of specialty coffee, which has extraordinary value than the commercial coffee, for the past two years, “in the past year from the total coffee export, specialty coffee took 35 percent, while that figure has expanded to 60 percent this year. We will continue on this strategy to generate more revenue from the sector.”
Experts argued that Ethiopian coffee is a premium product that would make the country more if it focused on selling specialty coffee rather than commercial coffee.
The authority had also introduced the vertical integration scheme that bypassed an auction platform at the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange.
According to Adugna, in the budget year, almost 90 percent of the coffee exported was through the vertical integration scheme, which is a new market chain that directly connects producers or suppliers to exporters.
The export destination has also shown some changes in the year. For instance China has become the 8th largest destination for Ethiopian coffee from the place of 33rd a year ago, while Taiwan seats at 9th place from virtually nowhere in the past.
The global market has also been stated as a contributing factor in the generation of more revenue.
AHRI, IVI and pertinent stakeholders launch mass cholera vaccination
A mass vaccination of the Oral Cholera Vaccine(OCV) has officially been launched on May 11 2022 at the Abosto Health Center in Shashemene town bringing in together pertinent stakeholders of Shashemene woreda and town administration officials, woreda and town health bureau officials, zonal health bureau officials, regional officials, community elders, religious leaders, media, the Armauer Hansen Research Institute(AHRI), Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), International Vaccination Institute(IVI) and LG Electronics (LGE) teams who joint hands to transmit key messages as well sensitize the community to increase awareness and acceptance of the vaccination.
The pre-emptive cholera vaccine will be administered to a hundred thousand residents of the area, of which 40,000 people will be from the Shashemene town, whilst 60,000 people will be from Shashemene woreda. For the OCV to be fully protective, two doses are recommended to be given 14 days apart to which the first round of this vaccination is set to run from May 11-15, with the complimentary second dose taking place from May 25-29.
ATMIS, SNA soldiers conclude training on enhanced military operations
Thirty-two Africa Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers have concluded training on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) held in Mogadishu, Somalia, which was facilitated by the United Kingdom Mission Support Team (UKMST) and the United Nations Field Technology Services.
The five-day training honed the soldiers’ skills in intelligence gathering and processing, surveillance and reconnaissance. It was also an opportunity to transfer skills to the Somali Security Forces, as they prepare to take full responsibility of Somalia’s security.
“I am pleased that we had so many SNA soldiers and officers on this course,” said ATMIS Deputy Force Commander in charge of Support and Logistics, Maj Gen. Gerbi Kebede Regassa.
Cross border collaboration to advance human development
By Rotarian Ephrem Berhanu
The Rotary district 9212, 97th convention and assembly (DCA) held in Diani, Mombasa, Kenya from May 12-15, 2022, that brought over 600 participants from the four countries in the district, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, and South Sudan come to an end this past weekend. We have witnessed the swearing in ceremony of the first Ethiopian women to assume the role of the district governorship for the year 2022-23 from the current district governor Alex Nyaga from Kenya. District 9212 is one of the more than 500 districts in the world today. The district governor will have a role in supporting Rotary, Rotaract and Interact clubs.
Azeb Asrat, the new governor elect will be brining over 28 years of experiences in various high-profile posts in the UN. She is from the Rotary Club of Addis Abeba West. Here theme “Let’s March Together” emboldened with the view to stress on the importance of leave no one behind.
The 98th DCA is going to be held in Addis Abeba from 11-14 May 2023. 700 participants are expected to attend it and registration has already started. An organizing team has been established and start working to make it successful. It gives an opportunity to showcase the number of service projects implemented by Rotary clubs in Ethiopia more so in Addis Abeba and its environ. It will help create connections to develop more partnership and collaboration to do more service projects that will benefits our community.
It is astonishing to see how powerful a vision of a one man is, Paul Harris an attorney from Chicago who inspired the Rotary movement around the world by establishing the first club in his hometown Chicago on 23 February 1905. Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and like-minded problem-solvers who aim to create positive and lasting change in their communities and themselves.
Rotary is where members, friends, and problem solvers share ideas take action to create lasting change. With more than 15,000 clubs in more than 145 countries, it connects leaders beyond borders, from Brazil to South Africa, from India to Unites States bringing together for the advancement of humanity.
“Service above self” is the motto of Rotary International which signifies the belief that Rotarians would put their duty to help others before their own needs. The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service as a basis of worth enterprise. Eradicating Polio is one of its singular and successful contribution, where Polio is endemic in only two countries down from 125 in 1988. Rotary International has seven areas of focus which includes, peace and conflict prevention, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, economic and community development, and environment.
There is an African saying “if you think you are too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent the night with a mosquito”.
Paul Harris is a great testament for one can take a great lesson to not afraid to dream big and set ambitious goals!
Platforms of this kind will have a positive contribution for the effort the African Union commission and its member states are making to create an African free trade area and encourage free movements of people and goods and services across the African region. To grow doing business between neighboring countries, Rotary is already connecting people cross boarder!
