Ethiopia says coffee rebound will boost exports

By Barry Malone and Tsegaye Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia is pinning its hopes on a rebound in harvests and prices for its crucial coffee sector to boost export earnings to $2.9 billion in 2009/2010, the trade minister said on Wednesday.

Coffee accounted for some 60 percent of Ethiopia's foreign exchange revenue in the 2007/2008 (June/July) season, when it earned more than $525 million from exports of 170,888 tonnes of mostly high quality arabica beans.

But earnings slumped to just $375.8 million for 133,993 tonnes in 2008/2009 after bad weather obliterated entire crops in some growing zones.

"Coffee production this fiscal year is estimated to be 20 to 30 percent more than that of last year," Trade Minister Girma Birru told Reuters in an interview.

"So we hope the setback we faced last fiscal year will be resolved this year. The export targets we have set for 2009/2010 will be largely fulfilled by coffee."

Girma did not estimate how much hard currency the increased yield would earn for the Horn of Africa nation but said he doubted it would reach $500 million.

Ethiopia earned $1.5 billion from its mainly agricultural exports in 2008/09.

The country's coffee exports last year were also shaken by Japan's insistence on testing beans on arrival after it found some were contaminated with pesticides. Japan, which once bought almost 20 percent of Ethiopia's beans, said in September it was willing to resume imports.