The Politics of Coffee
From 1974 to 1991, Ethiopia was ruled by a harsh and restrictive Marxist dictatorship that consolidated large, collective farms that then were required to sell directly to the government at a low price. After the dictatorship fell in 1991, the government began to allow farmers to form co-ops and demand fair prices without the use of middlemen. However, due to the negative connotations given to the cooperatives established under Marxist rule, many farmers distrust cooperative management even today.
In April 2008, the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) was established as a platform for the trade of undifferentiated crops such as wheat, maize, sesame, and haricot beans. Meant to “ensure the development of an efficient modern trading system” that would “protect the rights and benefits of sellers, buyers, intermediaries, and the general public”, the system was idealised as an equalising market force. Coffee was also brought under the ECX’s roof later that same year – in part to enable the government to garner some of the revenue earnings from this substantial crop.
Until December 2008, growers could also sell direct to export markets, but this was subsequently reigned in, and the difficulty of determining precise provenance in Ethiopia – a corner stone of specialty coffee – has been a tremendous frustration to buyers in consuming markets ever since.
On arrival at the ECX, coffee is repackaged and then categorized according to cup profile and quality before being auctioned to the highest bidder. The intervention has, in some ways, been very positive for farmers and consumers, leading to a more consistent and better cup for most coffees and higher prices for growers; however, a drawback to the pooling of coffees based on taste alone is that, crucially, the buyer cannot trace a coffee back to the grower, cooperative or region. Any origin provenance is, thus, effectively lost at the point that the coffee enters the ECX.
This, of course, eliminates most roasters’ and importers’ ability to provide accurate information regarding the precise traceability of coffees purchased through the ECX, which accounts for some 90 percent of all Ethiopia’s coffee. Although rules and guidelines are loosening – 10 percent of coffee grown is now eligible to be purchased through cooperatives – the world of coffee in Ethiopia is moving in the right direction but slowly. All of the Ethiopian coffees that we purchase at Mercanta are selected on the basis of their exceptional cup profile first and foremost. This remains our guiding principle in Ethiopia and in all origins where we source coffees.
Ethiopia is one of only a relatively small number of producing countries that also consumes a large part of its production internally (including Brazil, Colombia, India and Indonesia), and coffee is usually prepared in a complex ceremony using a jebena – a pottery jug with a spherical base, a neck and pouring spout.
