As we are in the middle of shipment phase of the season, here are some of my takes on the 22/23 Ethiopian Coffee Season as an Export Manager for Daye Bensa Coffee.
22/23 harvest could be labeled as abundant in correspondence to the amount of yield and Quality wise, it is really satisfactory. As I had the chance to closely monitor the harvest in Daye Bensa Coffee’s farms and farms of producers adjacent to our processing stations, the aggregate total of harvested coffee is much larger than last year’s season.
Although there are many cherries produced, the demand outgrew the supply creating an unbalanced buying and selling structure, resulting in heavy prices (up to over 100 birr/kg) on some parts of producing regions. Whilst the price of coffee trading in the NY market is going low, locally there was a scramble to secure as much as coffee on hand. Which is going to hinder the Ethiopian Coffee export market due to high prices in relation to other producing countries.
And when we come to the processing, which takes the biggest portion of the labor work, went very smoothly in a very detail oriented manner, which is going to be attributed to working with a company who heavily emphasizes on quality oriented output.
Now that we have started shipping the current harvest, I couldn't help but point out some barriers faced through the process like container shortage as it takes 2-3 weeks to pick up a container and lack of vessel availability, advising early bookings as an expert on the matter.
Another take on the season is the increased number of visitors to our farms and processing facilities, which can be accredited to Covid travel restrictions in the previous seasons. These origin trips and travels are a gateway for transparent trading, and also experience, technical expertise and cultural exchanges.
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