Enterprise earns 209 mln birr from coffee sales

Addis Ababa, May 2 (WIC) – Coffee Plantation Development Enterprise (CPDE) has reportedly earned 209 million birr from coffee sales this Ethiopian fiscal year.

Enterprise Director General, Fesseha Tekle, told WIC the sales income has been obtained from over 75,000 quintals of coffee supplied to local and overseas markets.

As Fesseha indicated, Japan, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands and Russia are among the enterprise’s most important export destinations.

He said CPDE has achieved 85 per cent of the plan set to harvest 77,000 quintals of coffee this season.

CPDE, a pioneer organization mainly engaged in coffee production and marketing sector, achieved bumper harvest this fiscal year as compared to the previous years.

This year’s coffee output of the enterprise stands at 75, 100 quintals, up 13 per cent from a year earlier. Last year, it harvested close to 58,000 quintals.

Despite bumper harvest, this year’s sales decreased compared to a year ago due to lower coffee price at the international market and global financial crisis, he said.

Last year, the enterprise earned 255 million birr, he said.

As part of the efforts to increase productivity, the enterprise arranged to remove old coffee trees from 500 hectares of land and replace them with newer and high-yield species, he said.

Currently, Coffee Plantation Development Enterprise has more than 14,000 employees, out of which 4,200 are permanent, Fesseha indicated.