The Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union said it was planning to earn over 7 million dollars from the export of coffee during the current fiscal year.

The union hopes to earn the 7 million dollars by exporting more than 1,100 tonnes of coffee to the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Europe, Takele Mamo, general manager of the union, said yesterday.

The union has been making preparations to export 90 tonnes of coffee next month as per the agreements it had signed with various foreign companies, Takele said.

The union earned 6.5 million dollars from the export of 1,500 tonnes of coffee in the fiscal year to 8 July 2011, according to the general manager.

Ethiopia earned 841.6 million dollars from the export of about 200,000 tonnes of coffee in the 2010/2011 fiscal year. The country is planning to raise its coffee production to 700,000 tonnes from 300,000 tonnes over the coming four years.

Experts said that the increase in the quantity of coffee exported from Ethiopia was due to the introduction in 2008 of a commodity exchange market, which promoted transparent trading, and rising global commodity prices.

The Yirgachefe Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union was established 10 years ago. The union consists of 23 basic associations and over 44,000 coffee farmers have joined it as members.

Source: Walta Information Centre