INTRO | HIGHLIGHTS | FEATURES | FOCUS | PERSPECTIVES | BIOS
VICTORIA RIDLEY explains how climate change
threatens one of East Africa’s biggest cash crops
High-up in the forested mountains of South-East
Ethiopia, a country more famed for famine than
agricultural productivity, green trees with plump
red berries thrive. These are Coffea arabica trees,
the source of arabica coffee that is native to this
region of Ethiopia. Dubbed ‘Black Gold’ in a 2006
film, coffee is one of the world’s most valuable
agricultural commodities and in Ethiopia alone
15 million people are dependent upon this industry.
The value of coffee in East Africa
Across the East Africa region arabica coffee thrives in pockets usually at
high altitudes. Coffee farming and the associated production industries
employ millions of people across the region and contribute greatly to
the East African economy, an area often associated with poverty stricken
nations. The economic importance of coffee is striking. According to the
UN, in 2008 the small landlocked country of Burundi was the eighth
poorest in the world and coffee accounted for 84 percent of the total value
of agricultural exports. In Ethiopia, it is not only the economic value of
coffee that is important to the nation. As the homeland of arabica coffee,
producing, brewing and drinking coffee is deeply engrained into Ethiopian
history, culture and heritage.