11/28/23 Update - Disappointed Ethiopians & Early Keffa Shipment
Sources: Zelalem Girma Bayou, ZEM Founder, Exporter, & Coffee Producer / various USA-based buyers of Ethiopian specialty coffee in conversation with Emily McIntyre
Written by: Emily McIntyre, ZEM CEO
TLDR; Tough times for many people involved in Ethiopian coffee, due to the past few years of upheaval. However ZEM’s supply chain has some blue sky… literally! If you want fresh coffees landed in your roastery starting in March, let us know now!
ACTION TO TAKE: Initiate a coffee forecasting meeting with Charley or me (emily@zem.coffee / charley@zem.coffee). It’s time to overview your dream coffee lineup, as shipment looks early this year particularly for Keffa coffees!
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After an intense and difficult period for anyone involved in Ethiopian coffee, people who work in the sector are tired this year even though the market is opening with lower cherry prices.
Producers all over Ethiopia have tried to weigh the right moments to sell or hold their parchment or dried cherry, and many of them have not made the right gamble. For example some producers we spoke with in Sidama had offers in June 2023 for 11,000 birr per ferrasula to sell their cherry, and held because the offer came from an untrustworthy source, who was known to either withhold payments or simply not pay. Now, with their finance from the season draining everything they have, they are lucky to find a buyer at 7500 birr per ferrasula. Most exporters are sitting on large piles of expensive aging parchment from the 2022-2023 season, so with lower FOB prices expected for fresh crop coffees and the fact that many of these producers and exporters saw a loss last year and expect worse in 2024, there is little general excitement about Ethiopian coffee this harvest.
This position is reflected by buyers who have gotten badly burned over the past few years of rising Ethiopian prices, flaky exporters, and challenging logistics. You only take risks and see them come in an outright loss so many times before you start looking in other directions. Many of us thought it wasn’t possible to replace Ethiopian coffees in roaster lineups, which may be true, but costly coffees are in a tenuous position these days.
Beautiful Keffa in August 2023
All this is fact, but on the ground in the supply chain for our vertically-integrated export company, Ethio-Catalyst PLC, there’s a ton of excitement. 2023 was actually a great year for Ethio-Catalyst and some of its partners, especially with the modified expectations we all had and the huge hit to the founders when they were forced to close their US-based importing company, Catalyst Trade, in late 2023.
Ethio-Catalyst has been able to secure the necessary financing to support the vertically integrated producers who need it with wire or plastic mesh and some cherry finance. Funds are tight but present, and when so much of the sky is so dark, this is a huge blessing to all parties concerned.
In Keffa, we have site samples beginning to flow our way and are excited about their quality potential. Zelalem (Founder of ZEM & Ethio-Catalyst) shared that his heart sank when the very first batch of coffee hit the drying beds and the rain came… but his prayers made a difference because shortly the sun and the blue sky came, and we have had glorious golden warmth to dry out those early lots!
We plan to ship our first containers in late January. It’s an early year especially for Western coffees and we are GOING FOR IT!!! If you’d like fresh, vibrant coffee in your roastery in March-May—now’s the time to tell us!
