12 °c
London
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
No Result
View All Result
FurtherAfrica
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • Interviews
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Travel
  • Weekend
  • About
FurtherAfrica
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • Interviews
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Travel
  • Weekend
  • About
No Result
View All Result
FurtherAfrica
No Result
View All Result
Home Africa

South America coffee hurting African growers

Staff by Staff
March 18, 2020
in Africa, Agriculture, Coffee, Economy, Export, Farming, Trade
Reading Time: 3 mins read
838 54
0
Share via QRWhatsappShare on FacebookShare on TwitterLinkedInPinteresteMail

Coffee production in South America is on a sharp increase and the resulting market flood is severely hurting East African coffee growers.

As supply increases, the market price is steadily falling. For trading blocs like the East African Community (EAC) where coffee is traditionally among the leading export commodities, the lower market prices spell a gloomy period up ahead.

In fact, for most of the East African countries, coffee accounts for 76 percent of the value of all agricultural exports put together. So losing the coffee market is a severe blow to economic development in East Africa and across the continent too.

Sector pundits say South America is using improved hybrids that are growing fast, producing better yields and they also have better after harvest storage and transportation facilities which are important to maintain the quality of the grain.

For example, statistics show that Brazil is now the world’s leading coffee producer with an annual output of close to 61.7 million bags. Well, if you consider the fact that in 2018 the total amount of coffee that entered the market was 170.94 million bags, this means that Brazil alone is producing almost half of all the coffee that enters the world market.

Next in line is Vietnam, which is not even traditionally a coffee producer yet in 2018 it clocked an impressive supply of some 31.1 million bags of coffee. With that high out put Vietnam is effectively boxing out Africa from the world market map.

Things are quite gloomy for Africa’s coffee industry considering that even Colombia which produces 13.8 million bags on average, is actually producing almost double what East Africa’s top producer is currently able to bring to the market. Ethiopia is Africa’s top most coffee producer and it produces only 7.7 million bags.

Eat Africa’s production is lagging at the bottom of the barrel. After Ethiopia, it is Uganda that follows producing some 4.7 million bags of coffee. After which there is another drastic drop of production before the runners up, which is Tanzania that is producing a mere 1.1 million bags.

These figures are to small to meet global demands and across East Africa the output just gets worse. Kenya is the next runners up and it produces only 890,000 bags followed by Rwanda and Burundi each producing 268,000 and 178,000, respectively.

Luckily for East Africa, it has a solid market demand for its coffee, but how long it will be able to hold on to that market remains to be seen. At the moment, Germany is East Africa’s largest coffee buyer.

Germany alone buys up to 16.5 percent of East Africa’s coffee beans and then comes Italy which procures at least 12 per cent of all of East Africa’s coffee.

Nonetheless, East Africa is doing its best to squeeze more yield out of its coffee farms. In 2018, Uganda, the region’s leading coffee producer, increased production by 36 per cent, that is more than double the output of Rwanda and Ethiopia combined (17.6 and 16.3 percent, respectively).

Fighting to stay relevant

If East Africa is to remain relevant the coffee industry, it has to increase production, and not only that, it also has to improve the quality of its out put. However, to do this calls for reinvesting in the sector.

Considering that most coffee is grown by peasants, then each of East Africa’s governments must invest in improving the farming conditions of these small scale farmers. This means increasing access to inputs and modern farming techniques.

This is where the task lays, modern techniques. Most of the East Africa farmers are using traditional farming methods, growing the same varieties and strands that they have for decades.

Their South America competitors have adopted modern farming methods and are goring fast maturing, high yielding hybrids. Couple this with the lack of transportation infrastructure to move the coffee from rural interiors to the coast for export, East African coffee grows have to deal with storage task.

After harvest losses have huge impact on the East African coffee industry because the farmer usually lacks the necessary storage facilities to keep the coffee in the global market standards. Most of the coffee loses quality after harvest due to poor storage facilities. Poor quality means poor prizes.

Local media quotes Executive Director at African Fine Coffees Association (AFCA), Mr Samuel Kamau who underscored the need to improve the quality of the output that Africa brings to the market.

“To stay relevant, then we have to produce good quality coffee that can compete with products from other countries.”

With a production capacity of 18 million bags of coffee every year that is exclusive for export, Africa cannot afford to lose its place in the world’s coffee market. However, it will require political will power to do so.

Improving coffee output cannot be left for the peasant farmer alone, it will need public private partnership to get the right hybrids, pesticides, storage and transportation infrastructure, etc.

Source: The Exchange

Related

Tags: AFCAafricaAfrican Fine Coffees AssociationBurundiCoffeeColombiaEACEast African CommunityEthiopiaGermanyItalyKenyaRwandaSamuel KamauSouth AmericaTanzaniaUgandaVietnamафрикаأفريقياアフリカ非洲
ScanSendShare357Tweet223Share62Pin80Send
Staff

Staff

Related Posts

Expat: Mozambique improves Oil & Gas immigration regime
Policy

Mozambique reviews Visa regime as part of its Economic Stimulus Package

by Elizabeth Khumalo
August 16, 2022
FDI

Foreign investment – plus or minus to Tanzania fishing sector?

by The Exchange
August 16, 2022
Agriculture

Nigeria approves US$24B for smart modular irrigation

by Farmers Review Africa
August 16, 2022
Trade

Ethiopia’s first free trade zone inaugurated

by FurtherAfrica
August 16, 2022
Banking

AfDB’s “Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation” wins award

by FurtherAfrica
August 16, 2022
Angola Oil & Gas 2022
 
AFSIC 2022
 
Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park
 
MozParks

Translate this page

Read the Latest

Expat: Mozambique improves Oil & Gas immigration regime
Policy

Mozambique reviews Visa regime as part of its Economic Stimulus Package

by Elizabeth Khumalo
August 16, 2022
0

Following last week’s release of a 20 measures stimulus package, Mozambique announced details about one of the first measures to...

Read more

Foreign investment – plus or minus to Tanzania fishing sector?

August 16, 2022

Nigeria approves US$24B for smart modular irrigation

August 16, 2022

Ethiopia’s first free trade zone inaugurated

August 16, 2022

AfDB’s “Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation” wins award

August 16, 2022

FurtherAfrica Partners Network

The Exchange Club of Mozambique Taarifa Rwanda
TechGist Africa Africa Oil & Power Farmers Review Africa
Tanzania Invest Zambia Invest See Africa Today
Africa Global Funds Novafrica CrudeMix Africa
Harambee Africa Botswana unplugged Financial Insights Zambia
Digilogic Africa Web3Africa

Subscribe to FurtherAfrica

Enter your email address to receive new articles on your email.

Join 100,550 other subscribers.

FurtherAfrica

© 2021 FurtherMarkets

FurtherAfrica is a FurtherMarkets Limited platform

  • Countries
  • Interviews
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Travel
  • Weekend
  • About

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Countries
    • Angola
    • Botswana
    • Cape Verde
    • DRC
    • Eswatini
    • Ethiopia
    • Kenya
    • Malawi
    • Mauritius
    • Mozambique
    • Namibia
    • Nigeria
    • Rwanda
    • South Africa
    • Tanzania
    • Uganda
    • Zambia
    • Zimbabwe
  • Interviews
  • Understanding
  • Videos
  • Travel
  • Weekend
  • About

© 2021 FurtherMarkets

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?
 

Loading Comments...