ADDIS ABABA (Semonegna) – The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority announced plans to build a Coffee Park, as part of the national plan to promote Ethiopia’s specialty coffee products to the international community.
The planned Coffee Park, which will be built jointly by the Ethiopian and South Korean governments at a cost of 50 million US dollars on 30 hectares of land in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, is expected to “play an important role towards promoting Ethiopia’s coffee to the international community,” Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) quoted Hairu Nuru, market information and control director at the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority. The plan to build the Coffee Park is also said to be part of Ethiopia’s grand plan to penetrate the international coffee market through various initiatives.
According to Ato Hairu, the new Coffee Park, which will have a coffee museum and coffee market center, as well as various other facilities, will take three years for completion.
In the first week of August 2019, the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority launched a new national coffee brand in a view to enabling the country obtain recognition from the global coffee market in its ownership, control and use of trademarks in specialty coffees
The Authority’s Director General Dr. Adugna Debela said, during the launching of the initiative dubbed as “Ethiopian Coffee,” that the new initiative would have a pivotal importance in ensuring the identification and development of products in global market places and enabling a large and growing number of consumers aware its characteristics.
The Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority, which has been developing the new umbrella Ethiopian Coffee brand, also said that the new government-led initiative would enhance the current ‘weak international presence and image’ of Ethiopia’s major coffee varieties, such as Yirgacheffe, Harrar, and Sidamo coffees.
Dr. Adugna, noted the new initiative and brand “Ethiopian Coffee,” which was prepared by the collaboration of Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Authority and Japan International Cooperation Agency, will have paramount importance for developing the coffee sector. He also stressed that the new initiative would help Ethiopia to decide and negotiate the price of coffee in the international market.